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TIMT ▼ Accessing the World’S Information Since 1938 INFORMATION TO USERS The most advanced technology has been used to photo­ graph and reproduce this manuscript from the microfilm master. UMI films the original text directly from the copy submitted. Thus, some dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from a computer printer. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyrighted material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are re­ produced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each oversize page is available as one exposure on a standard 35 mm slide or as a 17" x 23" black and white photographic print for an additional charge. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. 35 mm slides or 6" X 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. ii/wiiirTmiii TIMT▼ Accessing the World’s Information since 1938 300 North Z eeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA Order Number 8824479 The dissenting writer in South Africa: A rhetorical analysis of the drama of Athol Fugard and the short fiction of Nadine Gordimer Colleran, Jeanne Marie, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1988 Copyright ©1988 by Colleran, Jeanne Marie. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 PLEASE NOTE: In el! cases this materia! has been filmed in the best possible way from the available copy. Problems encountered with this document have been identified here with a check mark V 1. Glossy photographs or pages. 2. Colored illustrations, paper or_____ print 3. Photographs with dark background____ 4. Illustrations are poor copy______ 5. Pages with black marks, not original copy. 6. Print shows through as there is text on both sides of page. 7. Indistinct, broken or small print on several_______ pages 8. Print exceeds margin requirements _ 9. Tightly bound copy with print lost______ in spine 10. Computer printout pages with indistinct print. 11. Page(s)___________lacking when material received, and not available from school or author. 12. Page(s)___________seem to be missing in numbering only as text follows. 13. Two pages numbered . Text follows. 14. Curling and wrinkled pages^ 15. Dissertation contains pages with print at a slant, filmed as received________ 16. Other uMI THE DISSENTING WRITER IN SOUTH AFRICA; A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DRAMA OF ATHOL FUGARD AND THE SHORT FICTION OF NADINE GORDIMER DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Jeanne M. Colleran, A.B., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1988 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Edward P. J. Corbett Katherine Burkman Adviser Ann Dobyns Department of 5'nglish Copyright by Jeanne M. Colleran 1988 for Richard ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to each of the members of my dissertation committee. Professor Katherine Burkman re-kindled my interest in drama, and her enthusiasm for this project was a source of great encouragement to me. I am especially grateful to Professor Ann Dobyns for her assistance in clarifying key rhetorical concepts and for her many helpful textual comments. Professor Edward P. J. Corbett served as my major advisor, and I am grateful to him for his conscientious and thoughtful responses to my writing. My deep-felt thanks to all for their guidance and moral support. I was fortunate to have the support of family and friends during the past months. In particular, I would like to thank: Richard and Mary Lou Weaver, Andrea and James Colleran, Daniel Colleran, John Weaver, Nancy Weaver, Sheila Haney Drain, Krista Ratcliffe, and Patrick Mannix. I would like to dedicate this work to those people who com'prise the full circle of my life. My parents, William and Regina Colleran, modeled a love of learning and a habit of perseverance that are the real roots of this dissertation; to them my love and thanks are not for the past months alone, but the years, too. My husband, Richard Weaver, patiently saw this project through every difficult stage; to him, my deepest thanks and immeasurable love. My sen, James Weaver, hid my pens, scattered my papers, and charmed my every minute; to him, my constant love and highest hopes. iii VITA August 25, 1954............ Born— Pittsburgh, Pa. 1976....................... A.B. , John Carroll University, Cleveland, Oh. Summa cum Laude 1979....................... M.A., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Oh. 1979-1984................. Lecturer in English, John Carroll University 1984-Present.............. Graduate Student, The Ohio State University, Cols. Oh. MAJOR FIELDS OF STUDY English: Rhetoric and Composition/ Twentieth Century Literature iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION............................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................ iii VITA..................................................... iv CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF THE DISSENTING WHITE WRITER IN SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE 1 The Critical Issue; The Role of the Dissenting White Writer in South Africa.... 8 Critical Methodology: Rhetorical Situation and Rhetorical Strategies.................. 15 II. RHETORICAL CRITICISM: ARISTOTELIAN AND BURKEIAN APPROACHES........................... 29 Aristotelian Rhetoric and New Rhetoric 34 Shared Assumptions of Aristotelian and Burkeian Rhetoric........................... 40 Further Relevance of Burkeian Rhetoric 46 III. THE RHETORICAL SITUATION IN SOUTH AFRICA: LEGAL AND SOCIAL CONSTRAINTS AFFECTING LITERARY PRODUCTION........................... 58 South African Censorship and Its Affect on Literary Production......................... 62 Other Legal and Social Constraints Affecting Writers and Their Texts.......... 71 The Effect of Apartheid on Imaginative Writing: Characterization and Plot......... 76 Rhetorical Situation and Literary Mode 82 Poetry and Protest: The Difficult Balance.. 88 IV. ATHOL FUGARD'S RHETORICAL SITUATION.......... 94 Rhetorical Exigence......................... 98 Rhetorical Constraints...................... 103 The Emergence of Black Theatre and Its Effect on Fugard's Dramas.................. 113 V. RHETORICAL STRATEGIES IN ATHOL FUGARD'S DRAMA 119 Rhetorical Terms: Psychology of Audience, Form, Strategy.............................. 123 Rhetorical Situation of The Blood Knot 129 Rhetorical Techniques Used in The Blood Knot........................................ 133 Rhetorical Techniques in Fugard's Other Apartheid Dramas....................... 170 Conclusion............................. 190 VI. NADINE GORDIMER'S RHETORICAL SITUATION. 197 Rhetorical Exigence: Growth of a Political Consciousness.......................... 199 Rhetorical Constraints: Legal and Social Apartheid.............................. 210 Censorship: Gordimer's Experience and Response............................... 211 The Color Bar: A More Insidious Constraint. 214 Consequences of Rhetorical Constraints: Theme, Characterization, and Mode.... 216 VII. RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF NADINE GORDIMER'S SHORT FICTION............................ 224 Short Fiction as Forensic or Epideictic Discourse; the Employment of Ethical and Emotional Appeals...................... 233 The Rhetorical Function of Literary Devices in Gordimer's Short Stories........... 259 VIII. CONCLUSION: THE DISSENTING ARTIST'S PROTEST.. 286 WORKS CONSULTED................ 300 VI CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF THE DISSENTING WHITE WRITER IN SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE I believe the position of the resident white South African artists (including writers) is morally indefensible. They live in a concentration camp— not with the victims but with the guards. They share the guards' food, their privileges, their comfortable life-style. "But we bear witness," they respond. "We offer words of hope, of comfort to those going to the gas chambers tomorrow." Tell that to Nelson Mandela and to the ghost of Steve Biko. Even if you protest that your main reason for remaining there is to resist oppression and injustice, all the signs are that you have failed. Perseus Adams Exiled South African writer Those three years of association with political people did nothing to persuade me of the error of my individualistic-liberal ways. Instead they produced a graphic demonstration of the confusion, destructiveness, and self-destructiveness inherent in that form of power drive which is the radical approach to things. Whatever possibilities it holds out for the rectification of society, it yields, at any rate, nothing desirable for the pursuit of literature beyond the farcical and tragic stories it generates. Lionel Abrahams South African editor, publisher, and writer Is it possible for the white Afrikaans writer, the member of the privileged ruling class, to write significant revolutionary literature about the struggle of a suppressed people, the black people, whom he doesn't really know? Ample Coetzee South African critic Protest must not be allowed to destroy the art of the writer. Nor must moral consideration. Alan Paton South African novelist The old is dying and the new cannot be born; in the interregnum there arises a great diversity of morbid symptoms. Nadine Gordimer South African novelist In Exiles
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