Violence and writing : the work of Andre Brink

This dissertation is a study of the relationship between violence and writing, and it takes as its focus the post-1976 novels of Andre Brink, ranging from Rumours of Rain to An Act of Terror. Its chief argument is that Brink's work undoes the opposition between·violence and writing, both in its thematic content and in the self-reflexively foregrounded dynamics of its utterance. While Brink's novels suggest that violence impedes writing inasmuch as it traumatises the speaking subject, it is no less the case that they present the subsequent resurgence of writing as an act of violence directed against forces constraining the subject to silence. For Brink, violence negates writing, yet it also informs it.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of English Language and Literature

Year dc:date.issued

1996

Author dc:creator

• Wiesner, André

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Coetzee, John M

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21771

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/21771