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Afrikaans and Netherlandic Studies

Pyn en patos : 'n ondersoek na die kreatiewe krag van pyn vir die skep van patos in en deur literêre tekste

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The title of the study explicates the hypotheses for the research. Through five focuses interactionis revealed. Firstly: By the use of three different "texts", perspectives are opened on the processes of elemental pain as viewed through four lenses, namely the literary, psychoanalytical, theological and anthropological-philosophical lenses. Secondly the Prometheus figure and "Diep Rivier" (Eugene Marais) are used to focus on the creative energy of pain in meaning seeking and primordial pain in the writer. Pathos, thirdly, is portrayed through two literary works, "Vaslav in die Sneeu: 'n Col/age" (Hennie Aucamp) and Die Dood in Venesie (Thomas Mann). Aschenbach, as Romantic Writer and as Romantic Image (Frank Kermode), or as metafictional (Patricia Waugh and Linda Hutcheon) thinker on the roots of the creative process demonstrates tension, suffering, the interaction between fiction and reality, irony, parody, and also distance and involvement to facilitate pathos. Concluding from the texts, a theoretical perspective on pathos is given. The creative force of pain for the reader is fourthlypresented through the diverging use of the Aristotelian catharsis concept demonstrated by the contrasting interaction between two European texts Jacob the Liar (Jurek Becker) and Kreettegang (Gunter Grass) as well as two South African texts, Kanna Hv KG Hvstoe (Adam Small) and A Change of Tongue (Antjie Krog). Fifthly, the interactive process of the creative force of pain from the writer presented in the text and encountered by the reader, is discussed by using an Aristotelian statement. The process is finally demonstrated by a discussion of Die Seemeeu (Chekov). The word striving to create beauty from elemental pain closes the circle to present and substantiate meaning. Through the word the "closed room" of beauty is opened in the text for writer and reader alike to "redeem them from this earthly load o.f certitude and pain". Literary and theoretical texts stretching over centuries are used to explicate how pain is working to create meaning, to read the text of life creatively and to approach life with pathos by which this way of reading literary texts is enhanced.

Degree

thesis:*
Grantor dc:publisher.institution
Afrikaans and Netherlandic Studies
Year dc:date.issued
2006

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Woest, Nicoline
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Snyman, Henning

Rights

Language dc:language.iso
afr

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8078
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8078

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Cape Town
Base URL
open.uct.ac.za/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Woest, Nicoline. Pyn en patos : 'n ondersoek na die kreatiewe krag van pyn vir die skep van patos in en deur literêre tekste. Afrikaans and Netherlandic Studies, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8078