https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/3641 Tue, 12 May 2026 16:48:45 GMT 2026-05-12T16:48:45Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/31153 Trance and transfiguration in rock art and literature Northover, Richard Alan What can San rock art research reveal about certain kinds of imaginative literature written in English? What do depictions of altered states of consciousness in literature reveal about human needs? In this lecture I explore depictions of altered states of consciousness in literature using the ideas of Aldous Huxley, based on his own experience of taking psychoactive drugs, the work of the German ethnobotanist Christian Rätsch on psychoactive plants, and the archaeologist David Lewis-Williams, whose work explains some aspects of some prehistoric rock art traditions using cognitive neuropsychology. Huxley was concerned with expanded consciousness and spirituality for much of his life, seeing in religion and art some form of salvation from what he saw as the meaninglessness of mass consumer capitalist culture that he critiques in his dystopian novel Brave New World (1932). Indeed, in this novel and in Island (1962), its follow-up and the final novel he wrote, he promotes the use of psychoactive drugs to achieve individual bliss and social cohesion. In The Doors of Perception (1954) and Heaven and Hell (1956) he documents his own experience of the effects of his consumption of mescalin and his reflections on this experience. Although his primary interest is in prehistoric rock art, Lewis-Williams (2002, 2005) also applies his theories of altered states of consciousness to The Epic of Gilgamesh and Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan,” helping to illuminate the poems in new ways. In this lecture, I compare Huxley and Lewis-Williams’s theories and use them to illuminate aspects of various works of literature in English. The lecture investigates the significance of traces of shamanism and altered states of consciousness in literature, re-reading modernity in the terms of plant studies and indigenous belief systems. Fri, 14 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/31153 2023-04-14T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/26839 Magrita Prinslo (1896), Magdalena Retief (1938) and Mies Julie (2012): from historical Afrikaner Mothers of the Nation to a modern Afrikanermeisie (girl): a postcolonial reading of Farber’s Mies Julie Keuris, Marisa Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/26839 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/26836 Migration theatre in South Africa with reference to Mike van Graan’s When swallows cry Keuris, Marisa In this article a discussion on migrant theatre in South Africa is given, with special reference to Mike van Graan’s play When Swallows Cry (2017). In the introduction a short background is given in terms of migration statistics and issues (notably xenophobia) pertaining to the South African state and society. Against the background of an international and national upsurge in migrant theatre the view is expressed that though we have had migrant theatre pre-1994 during the heyday of Nationalist apartheid ideology, a change has occurred since 1994 when the political dispensation changed in South Africa and the African National Congress (ANC) came into power. The situation today is more complex where intra-continental and cross-continental migrancy is now part of everyone’s lives, as portrayed in Mike van Graan’s When Swallows Cry. Van Graan’s play thus reflects a changing focus in migrant plays in South Africa: from the very early plays concerned with internal migration in the country to plays that today reflect a more complex world (i.e. the often violent and xenophobic experiences of African migrants – also within a so-called new South Africa, but also in the rest of Africa and the bigger world).; In hierdie artikel word ʼn bespreking van migrasieteater in Suid-Afrika gegee met spesiale verwysing na Mike van Graan se drama, When Swallows Cry (2017). In die inleiding word ʼn kort agtergrond gegee van migrasie-statistieke, asook die probleme geassosieer daarmee (onder meer, xenofobie) met verwysing na die Suid-Afrikaanse regering en gemeenskap. Teen die agtergrond van ʼn internasionale en nasionale toename in migrasieteater word die beskouing gehuldig dat, hoewel ons migrasieteater gehad het voor 1994 gedurende die hoogbloei van die Nasionale Party se apartheidsideologie, ʼn verandering ingetree het sedert 1994 toe die ANC die politieke mag in Suid-Afrika oorgeneem het. Die situasie is tans meer kompleks met intra-kontinentale en kruis-kontinentale migrasie wat nou deel is van ons almal se lewens, soos wat Mike van Graan in When Swallows Cry ook uitbeeld. Van Graan se drama weerspieël dus ʼn veranderende fokus in migrasieteater in Suid-Afrika: vanaf die vroeë dramas wat hoofsaaklik gehandel het oor interne migrasie in die land tot dramas wat vandag ʼn meer komplekse wêreld reflekteer (naamlik die dikwelse geweldadige en xenofobiese ervarings van Afrika-migrante binne die sogenaamde nuwe Suid-Afrika, maar ook in die res van Afrika en die wêreld daar buite). Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/26836 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/26824 Nicola Hanekom’s Land van skedels – A Remembrance of Things Past and Present Keuris, Marisa Nicola Hanekom’s Land van Skedels had its premiere at the Clover Aardklop National Arts Festival in October 2013 and this production, as well as later ones, received glowing receptions from both theatre audience and theatre critics. She was commissioned by an Afrikaans newspaper (Die Burger) and an Afrikaans television channel (kykNET) to write Land van skedels. She was requested to focus in the play on the Anglo-Boer War, as well as the role played by Emily Hobhouse in this war. The main theme is, as can be expected, in a play that works with historical material, the theme of remembrance. The play is not a realistic depiction of the war and the concentration camps where many white (and black) women and children often died after a period of drawn-out suffering. Her play is a subjective and sensory depiction of traumatic memories and makes use of both historical and literary references to evoke these memories. These references are discussed within the context of theatre memory studies. It is clear from the references to other wars and camps in this play (i.e. Rwanda, Auschwitz) that humanity seems doomed to repeat its own mistakes and that Hanekom’s play is thus emblematic of all wars and all concentration camps.; Nicola Hanekom se Land van skedels het sy première gehad op die Clover Aardklop Nationale Kunsfees in Oktober 2013, waar dit (sowel as latere produksies) deur beide teatergehore en teaterkritici besonder goed ontvang is. Sy het die werk in opdrag van ʼn Afrikaanse dagblad (Die Burger) en ʼn Afrikaanse televesiekanaal (kykNET) geskryf, met die versoek om te fokus op die Anglo-Boere-oorlog en veral ook op die rol wat Emily Hobhouse daarin gespeel het. The hooftema is soos te verwagte in ʼn drama wat werk met historiese materiaal, die tema van herinnering. Die drama is nie ʼn realistiese uitbeelding van die oorlog en die konsentrasiekampe waarin baie wit (en swart) vrouens en kinders na ʼn periode van uitgerekte lyding gesterf het nie. Haar drama is ʼn subjektiewe en sensoriese uitbeelding van traumatiese herinneringe, wat deurgaans gebruik maak van beide historiese en literêre verwysings om hierdie herinneringe op te roep. Hierdie verwysings is bespreek binne die konteks van teater-herinneringstudies. Dit is duidelik uit die verwysings na ander oorloë en konsentrasiekampe (bv Rwanda, Auschwitz) dat die mensdom gedoem is om sy foute te herhaal en dat Hanekom se drama dus emblematies is van alle oorloë en konsentrasiekampe. Please follow the DOI link at the top of this record to navigate to the official published version of this article Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/26824 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z