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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Topological sorrows: perspectives on a changing way of life in oral histories from the Cape of Good Hope and Red Hill areas
Author:Heiss, SilkeISNI
Year:2001
Periodical:African Studies
Volume:60
Issue:1
Period:July
Pages:135-158
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:urban history
oral history
Education and Oral Traditions
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Ethnic and Race Relations
Urbanization and Migration
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/00020180120063665
Abstract:This paper emerged out of six months of oral history research conducted for the University of Cape Town Western Cape Oral History Project in 1995. The focus of the project was to explore aspects of discourse in oral history interviews and, in particular, discourse on life in the natural - that is, 'undeveloped'- environments of the Cape of Good Hope and Red Hill (South Africa). It was therefore necessary to interview individuals whose life histories were inseparable from their existence on this strip of 'undeveloped' land and its surrounding waters. Material was gathered with the intention of comparing various perceptions of, and modes of articulating, the natural environment. Three types of articulation suggested themselves in the interviews: performative (or oral-gestural), descriptive (or literary), and finally, utterances which situated themselves 'between' these two by superimposing aspects of both. It was in this third category that nostalgia for a 'lost space' was most apparent. Bibliogr., notes.
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