Creative Interpretation of South Africa Today

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2002

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | English Language and Literature

Advisor

Michael Opitz, English

Abstract

I am proposing to complete a creative thesis about the South Africa that has emerged in the world after its first free democratic election of 1994. South Africa is a complex country with a past that has affected it immeasurably. The present South Africa is so completely intertwined with its past that the two are inseparable, and one cannot understand one without the other. I will develop characters and situations that illustrate how South Africa’s past has influenced its present. Using the novella form, I will follow a few characters through a typical, ordinary, yet extraordinary day. The characters I create will confront issues directly within South Africa, but they will also move quietly past other facts of South African life, speaking to the reader through their silence. Both situations will reveal important aspects of South African culture. They will encounter issues typical to South Africa, such as AIDS, racism, segregation, ignorance, affirmative action, and gender.

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