AA 2013 Volume 45 Issue 4

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http://hdl.handle.net/11660/2472

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    Applied linguistics beyond postmodernism
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Weideman, Albert
    Applied linguistics clearly has modernist roots, which have steadily been eroded by postmodernist views. Opposites, such as quantitative and qualitative, or positivist and postpositivist, are often used to characterise this intellectual conflict. The current ascendancy of a potentially modernist paradigm, a dynamic or complex systems approach, will be noteworthy for drawing our attention to at least two complex linguistic ideas that have not adequately been analysed in linguistic theory. A foundational, philosophical analysis of such trends, as attempted in this article, should adopt a fittingly humble stance. That kind of humility, however, also applies across paradigms: the arrival of a new paradigm in the field is a timely reminder that enduring domination of a single paradigm in any discipline remains unlikely.
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    Can African traditional culture offer something of value to global approaches in teaching philosophy and religion?
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Giddy, Patrick
    What characterises the dominant global culture is a kind of autism, the loss of a well-articulated sense of self, a reluctance to spell out its core values and aims. A good education system, on the contrary, helps the learner articulate his/her sense of self in more adequate ways and so become a more self-aware and self-directing learner. In the context of African traditional culture, this will mean engaging with the pre-philosophical expressions of self-understanding, which will have to be considered in the context of modernity. The differentiation of consciousness that is at the heart of our ability to do this, however, is only articulated within a philosophical framework that has not lost the foundational notion of the presence to self of the questioning subject. In what follows I develop this contention for general philosophy, for ethics, for the philosophy of religion, and for how philosophy is presented in an African cultural context. This article is an attempt to show the underlying unity of these topics and thus make my point more effective.
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    Can Aristotle’s Phronimos return? The revival of interest in Aristotle’s phronesis in political philosophy/theory
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Faure, Murray
    This article explores the contemporary revival of interest in Aristotle’s notion of phronesis, practical wisdom. It commences by analysing this ancient intellectual virtue, its relation to Aristotle’s moral virtues and the role that philosophy occupies in his understanding of political science and the nature of politics. Following this, the factors, both practical and theoretical, that account for efforts to reincarnate the Phronimos (the man of practical wisdom) in our time is examined. The analysis subsequently identifies transhistoricist political theory which, unlike other forms of theorising, explicitly sets itself the goal to recover from the past an understanding of phronesis and instances of practical wisdom that can potentially be of use in contemporary times. In closing, some of the cognitive, political and practical obstacles that must be bypassed for political philosophy/theory to realise such a goal is explored and appraised.
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    Embodied religion’s radicalisation of immanence and the consequent question of transcendence
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Verhoef, Anné
    Transcendence has lost its metaphysical moorings and the tendency in postmodernity is the sublimation of transcendence within a conceptual framework of immanence. In other words, transcendence, in a postmetaphysical world, is fully and absolutely actualised or embodied. The consequent question arises: Is there still a need for the concept of transcendence and how should this transcendence be understood in the religious context, in particular? This question is explored by first analysing transcendence within the science-religion discourse. Secondly, Sally McFague’s theology is discussed as an example of a theology of radical immanence, and lastly Gilles Deleuze’s concept of radical immanence is explored. I argue that an understanding of embodied religion in a radical immanent way raises some intrusive questions concerning both the concept of transcendence and religion. A reinterpretation of transcendence might, however, make it possible to understand embodied religion not only in radical immanent terms.
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    Investigating the moderating effect of student engagement on academic performance
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Gerber, Charlene; Mans-Kemp, Nadia; Schlechter, Anton
    The academic performance and success of students are important for both higher education institutions and students. Student engagement has been identified as a crucial factor in academic success. Studies investigating student engagement have typically used self-report measures of engagement, collected at a given point in time. Self-report measures are, however, prone to positive bias (social desirability). In an attempt to overcome these shortfalls, data were collected over three years (2010-2012) in a third-year Business Management module, presented at a South African university (n=380). Academic and behavioural student engagement was measured by assessing academic activities (class attendance and weekly homework assessments), rather than with a self-report measurement scale. Unlike previous studies that correlated student engagement with academic performance, this article argues that student engagement enhances academic performance. It was found that student engagement significantly moderated the relationship between early and late semester assessments of academic performance (semester test and examination marks). It was, therefore, concluded that higher levels of engagement enhance the learning experience and subsequent performance in the module. High levels of student engagement may even lead to higher, than would otherwise be expected, academic performance.
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    The literary text in turbulent times: an instrument of social cohesion or an eruption of ‘critical’ bliss. Notes on J M Coetzee’s Life and times of Michael K
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Van Niekerk, Marlene
    The article is developed as a “counter-cultural” response to the socio-utilitarian formulations around artistic production typically found in current mission statements of the EU Culture Program. In its argument against the instrumentalisation of art, the article builds on the hypothesis that the ethical import of art lies not in the “messages” (e.g. about the need for European social cohesion and “cosmopolitan feelings”) that could be extracted from it, but in its own formally coherent and conceptual complexity. With reference to perspectives on art developed by Jean-Luc Nancy, Roland Barthes and Deleuze and Guattari, a reading is offered of J.M. Coetzee’s fourth novel Life and Times of Michael K. that suggests how it could be used as an oppositional intervention through analysis of its outrageously subversive conceptual charge, its abject main character and its self-conscious deconstructivist anti-realist style.
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    Loyalty, women and ‘business’: ideological hyper-values in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp fiction
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Rossouw, Martin
    This article challenges claims of nihilism and moral relativism in the narrative world of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp fiction (1994) by identifying three sets of recurring values which, in addition to being markers of the film’s version of ‘gangster morality’, appears to inspire the film narrative on a variety of levels. The film’s presentation of ‘gangster values’ (professionalism, respect and loyalty), values related to ‘care of women’ and ‘economicism’ – including ‘buying’ (consumerism) and ‘doing business’ (commercialism) – are shown to be continually at work in its three interweaving storylines. This article seeks to show how the film mobilises these values as ideological ‘hyper-values’ which, by being excessively privileged ideals, dominate and distort other legitimate values and goals. It concludes by considering hegemonic relations between these ‘hyper-values’ and illustrates the distinct dominance of economicism within this triad of ideological sets of values.
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    ‘Send in the (gay) clowns’: Will & Grace and Modern Family as ‘sensibly queer’
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Rothmann, Jacques
    Initial representation of sexual minorities reified gay lifestyle as synonymous with deviancy (Seidman 1996: 6), courtesy of news programmes or documentaries. Several depictions, whether comical or dramatic, led to an outcry from conservative and gay groups alike, protesting the stereotypical depiction of gay men as “a joke” (Burgess 2011: 178), a theme which would continue until the present day. This article provides a queer theoretical critique of two situation comedies, Will & Grace (Kohan & Mutchnick 1998) and Modern Family (Levitan & Lloyd 2009a), and their representation of gay men. Primary emphasis is placed on the dualistic use of comedic satire to either reinforce heteronormativity or exemplify the permeable nature of the supposed rigidity of the heterosexual/homosexual binary logic (Fuss 1991; Namaste 1996).
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    Towards the semiotic and the symbolic in music theory and analysis: Kristeva’s dialectics as a model for plurality in metadiscursive and discursive engagements with music
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Potgieter, Zelda
    This article examines both metadiscursive and discursive theoretical and analytical engagements with musical experience from the perspective of Julia Kristeva’s distinction between semiotic and symbolic signifying dispositions, and the dialectic in which they are poised, as these are set out in Revolution in poetic language (1984), in particular. To this end analyses of the Beethoven and Schubert settings of the character Mignon’s first song in Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre are offered, focusing on selected analytical approaches deemed to represent symbolic and semiotic dispositions, respectively, which, in turn, expose aspects of transposition or intertextuality. In this manner, a model for long-debated notions of heterodoxy and plurality in the practice of music theory and analysis is suggested.