Literator publishes research articles and essays on linguistics and literature in general, but focuses in particular on the (comparative) study of South African languages and literatures and other cultural phenomena across language, media and cultural boundaries (examples of topics would be: different manifestations of Post-Modernism, the interaction between visual arts and literature, the representation of the South African War in literature, language attitudes and language policy).

Literator publishes research articles and essays on linguistics and literature in general, but focuses in particular on the (comparative) study of South African languages and literatures and other cultural phenomena across language, media and cultural boundaries (examples of topics would be: different manifestations of Post-Modernism, the interaction between visual arts and literature, the representation of the South African War in literature, language attitudes and language policy).

The intentional deviation from the norms of Standard Afrikaans in advertising. The visibility of Afrikaans in the market place (media) and the growth of a different type (non-Standard) of Afrikaans in industries such as the music, film, publication industry, et cetera may be indicative of the symbolic and instrumental positioning of Afrikaans in the market place, in contrast to the hostility sometimes experienced in the tertiary education sector. The advertising industry is one such public sphere where Afrikaans is used. Language is used in a distinct manner in different genres which often deviates in a specific way and for specific reasons from the norms of Standard Afrikaans. To classify language as a deviation implies measurement against one or other norm. In the analytical section of this article, the norms (internal, external and universal) of Standard Afrikaans will be applied to print advertising language to motivate the functionality and acceptance of such (strategic) deviation in the construction of a plausible marketing message. Based on the theoretic principles of text linguistics, the intentionality and acceptance of the deviations of the prescribed norms play a significant role in constructing an implied marketing message. This does not imply the acceptance of unintended language errors but intended deviations of the prescribed norms that have a functional (communicative) market-driven role accepted by the intended audience. The study concludes with an overview of the most evident grammatical characteristics of the Afrikaans language in advertising.

When a language commission was stopped in its tracks. In the course of the standardisation of Afrikaans, the first two editions of the Afrikaanse woordelijs en spelreëls, published in 1917 and 1918, were heavily inundated with Dutch words. During that time Afrikaans was a well-known spoken language, and since 1860 it was sporadically written as well, without any uniformity, however. In the third edition of the Afrikaanse woordelys en spelreëls of 1921, the third spelling commission made some telling changes to the first editions, and a good part of the Dutch content was replaced with Afrikaans words, and spelling rules were altered for the spelling of Afrikaans as well. The fourth edition of this publication tried to follow suit, but contrary to expectations, was subjected to some changes by a conference chaired by the minister of education in 1930. This conference requested for the content of this edition to be Dutchified in some important ways, shortly before its publication in 1931. These changes didn’t satisfy the delegates of a second conference, held in 1932. An unheard-of decision was subsequently taken: corrections were published in 1932 to accompany the fourth Afrikaanse woordelys en spelreëls. This decision wasn’t very effective and resulted in much uncertainty about the spelling of Afrikaans until the publication of the next Afrikaanse woordelys en spelreëls, of 1937.

The study’s main objective was to investigate the attitudes held by undergraduate students towards studying isiZulu at university. The purposive sampling method was used to gather data from 100 students who studied the language as major subject, as well as three lecturers who taught the language at the same university. The study was a descriptive survey that used questionnaires to gather quantitative data and face-to-face interviews to gather qualitative data – mixed methods were used. The following five variables, namely: (1) sex, (2) age group, (3) years at university, (4) location of nurture and (5) linguality, were used to test the extent to which they influenced respondents’ attitudes towards the phenomenon under discussion. It was found that all five variables influenced respondents’ attitudes towards studying their L1 at university level. The findings revealed that respondents generally held positive attitudes towards studying isiZulu at university level. The study explored secondary phenomena and found that respondents believed that there were adequate job opportunities for those who studied isiZulu at university level and that they were proud to be the Zulu people.

This article discusses Mary Oliver’s poem, ‘Franz Marc’s Blue Horses’, as an ekphrastic poem. More specifically, the discussion opens with a brief overview aimed at an understanding of ekphrasis to show how its development through the centuries has altered definitions of what constitutes ekphrasis and how these fresh understandings have broadened its possibilities for the modern poet. Siglind Bruhn’s ideas about the three stages of the ekphrastic process are then outlined. They trace the steps a poet has to follow in order to produce an ekphrastic poem; they follow consecutively, with the second depending on the first, and the third depending on the second. Understanding this process enables readers to appreciate the ways in which Oliver adheres to, or diverts from, it in producing her poem about Franz Marc. The discussion turns to Hans Lund’s typology of the various verbal and visual relationships in ekphrasis that are open to the poet. His typology helps readers to consider answers to the following questions: what elements of the artwork does the poet make use of, and which does she exclude? In what ways are these elements deployed in the creation of her verbal text? And in broader terms, what is the nature of visual and verbal relationship in this particular poem? How tentative might that relationship be? After a description of Franz Marc’s painting, The Tower of Blue Horses, as an Expressionist artwork, the discussion moves on to Mary Oliver ’s poem. The text is conceptualised as Oliver ’s ‘script’ as it takes up Stephen Cheeke’s suggestion ‘to imagine what happens next’ after the poet’s initial interface with the stasis of the artwork’s pregnant moment. The article modifies the frequently used metaphor of the painting as a single frame from a film, replacing the solitary frame with the idea of a single scene as more credible metaphorically, the scene itself being divided into several segments reflecting the poem’s structure. Thus, the punctum temporis (or pregnant moment) as a single scene from a film becomes the guiding metaphor of the article. Then, the article argues that Oliver develops her poem as a filmic narrative, offering readers a series of ‘segments’ depicting various aspects of the evolving narrative as she visualises it. These ekphrastic processes are explored in some detail. Reading the poem in a filmic way allows the poet to controvert the implicit stasis of the painting and, through the transmedialisation of the visual to the verbal, to create a dynamic narrative ‘script’, using the poem’s segmented structure, to explore the text’s meaning by offering readers a vivid evocation of her experience of Marc’s painting.

Transamerica, by Duncan Tucker, released in 2005, addresses lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer- (LGBTQ-) related themes through a transsexual female protagonist, Bree. This article discusses the film as an important step in the direction of representing the complexity of gender, which, by today’s standards, is more generally appreciated. Because of its subject matter, Transamerica is a contentious film, lauded and condemned in mainstream media for how it dealt with and represented transsexual identities. Despite nominations for a number of awards, the film’s portrayal of transsexual identities was largely ignored in academic discourse at the time. I argue here that the film provides insight into the challenges, requirements, concerns, as well as the consequences of gender-fluid expression, which has been recognised in academia for years and has become a more discussed topic in mainstream society, but the manner in which the film examines these insights was overlooked. I do this by contextualising the film in terms of contemporary examples of transgender existence, which have brought the topic to mainstream discourse, and by applying gender theory concepts to the film. I discuss the protagonist’s physical and emotional journey to self-discovery in the context of the road movie trope. I then look into the protagonist’s gender performance, as well as how the protagonist negotiates this performance in the various places she visits while on the journey. I show that the film encourages open and honest discourse about gender identity and expression; the opportunity for this discussion was not taken in the year of the film’s release.

The Heroism of women in the African Epic: A critical analysis of Sundiata or the mandingo Epic, Emperor Shaka The Great: A Zulu Epic and Nsongo’a Lianja: The national Epic of the Nkundo. In African epics, female figures perform salient heroic roles that are, unfortunately, not widely recognised and celebrated, as notions of bravery and heroism are understood from a male perspective. Against this backdrop, this study adopts new critical and conceptual approaches to interrogate existing narratives, discourse and ideas on/or about female heroism. By focusing on selected epics, this work incorporates perceptions about women in folktales whose themes comment and reflect on the presentation of female characters and the roles they execute in society. The present contribution critically examines the role of supernatural forces in female characters’ commitment and heroism; not only protecting Soundiata, Shaka, and Lianja in accomplishing their destinies but also showcasing the activities, traditions, belief systems and culture of the Mandingo, Zulu, and Mongo in their respective societies.

This article focuses on the characterisation of S’ncamtho toponyms in Bulawayo and it goes on to measure the impact of these toponyms on the population of Bulawayo dwellers. S’ncamtho is an urban youth variety that is built on urbanity and streetwise style. The study assumes that, as S’ncamtho is the language of the youth in Bulawayo, people are exposed to S’ncamtho toponyms as the youth are found in all spheres of urban life in Bulawayo, especially the taxi industry which is used by the majority of people in the city. The research collected S’ncamtho verbal toponyms from Godini taxi rank in Bulawayo through undisclosed nonparticipant observations and some from the intuition of the researcher. Intuition and interviews were used to get the etymology of the toponyms and questionnaire tests of familiarity and usage were used to measure the impact of these toponyms on the population. Content analysis is used to characterise and classify S’ncamtho toponyms in Bulawayo and the metaphor comprehension test is used to measure their impact on the population. This article assumes that S’ncamtho has its own toponyms for locations in the city and that these are popular, especially with the youth, but people across age groups now use them.

Green postcolonialism in Etosha (Piet van Rooyen). In Etosha (2010) the impact and aftereffect of the colonial system on the Etosha Nasional Park in Namibia, and on the people who lived there, is portrayed. This study explores the situations of various characters and groups who formerly resided there, focusing on aspects of their relationship with one another, as well as on the realities of colonial exploitation and the use or destruction of the natural environment. The question raised is how green postcolonialism takes form in this novel as a result of the convergence of conservation oriented and postcolonial perspectives. The study focuses on the ways Etosha challenges the reader to realise the full complexity of the question, ‘Who is actually right, what is justifiable in the battle for survival?’, specifically in our local context; and on how the reader is confronted with the task to find place-specific answers for questions aimed at our situation in Africa. It is found that the situations of various role players and their different viewpoints are depicted in a nuanced and convincing manner, contributing to the realistic portrayal of the complex issue of conservation versus exploitation in the postcolonial context. Etosha is a meaningful novel when evaluated within the context of the development of ecocriticism in South Africa.