Richard Alan Northover
Biographic Data
| ID | 3481296 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richard Alan Northover |
| GIVEN NAMES | Richard Alan |
| FAMILY NAME | Northover |
| SIGNATURE | NORTHOVER R A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of South Africa |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5699-9613 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Schopenhauer and religion: Translating myth into metaphysics
The article assesses Arthur Schopenhauer’s reinterpretation of religious myths, particularly those of Christianity, in terms of his philosophical system, and applies his ideas to the mythical cosmology of shamanistic and animistic religions. Schopenhauer, a 19th-century Romantic philosopher, although an atheist himself, took religious myths very seriously, translating them into the terms of his metaphysical system. His view was that Roman Catholi…
The Art of Astonishment: Reflections on Gifts and Grace, by Alice Brittan
Durkheim’s totemic principle, shamanism and Southern African San religions
The study reappraised Emile Durkheim’s totemic principle in relation to the origins of religion and culture, using, amongst others, speech act theory and recent southern African epistemologies, especially David Lewis-Williams’ theory of shamanism, potency and altered states of consciousness. The study was text-based, qualitative and interpretive, and used key texts from anthropology, archaeology, history of religion, sociology and philosophy. It …
Lucy’s Precarious Privilege in Fiona Snyckers’s Lacuna
The article applies both Judith Butler’s notion of precarity and her Freudian approach to an analysis of Fiona Snyckers’s novel Lacuna (2019a). Using Freudian psychoanalysis to analyse the structure of Lucy’s trauma and to trace the process of her healing, I argue that, although the process is uneven and its outcome partial, it traces a movement from the darkness of her trauma to the illumination, following her name, of its cause as part of the p…
Animal Studies, Decoloniality and San Rock Art and Myth
Animals occupy an ambivalent position in relation both to Western capitalist modernity and to decoloniality, one of modernity's most vehement opponents. Paradoxically, animals are equally central to and yet marginalised by these discourses, both of which are thoroughly anthropocentric. Racist discourses thrive on "animalising" groups of people, which can only work if the status of nonhuman animals is diminished. Modern agribusiness values nonhuma…
“Things Fall Apart”: Introduction to the Special Issue on the Theme of the 2017 SASGLS/Saval General Conference
Strangers in Strange Worlds: Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy
Strangeness, based on the ambivalence of the uncanny, characterises both the pre-and post-apocalyptic worlds of Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy. Whereas Spiegel (2010) makes a convincing case for the neomedievalism of the corporation-dominated pre-apocalyptic world in Oryx and Crake, Atwood’s post-apocalyptic world can perhaps more aptly be described as Palaeolithic or Neolithic in the special sense of a return to the Stone Age. However, both…
“Stranger in a Strange Land”
On 15 April 2016, the South African Society for General Literary Studies/ \nSuid-Afrikaanse Vereniging vir Algemene Literatuurwetenskap (SASGLS/ \nSAVAL) hosted a colloquium at the University of South Africa on the topic \n“Stranger in a strange land”. The colloquium’s theme was taken from the \nKing James version of the Bible and refers to Moses’ sojourn in a foreign \ncountry after being exiled from Egypt, marrying his host’s daughter: “And \ns…
Ecological Apocalypse in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy
Atwood comments that her MaddAddam trilogy is neither apocalyptic nor utopian. Nor is the Waterless Flood, the central catastrophic event around which the various narratives of the trilogy cohere, an ecological catastrophe, but, instead, is the consequence of an act of bioterrorism meant to forestall such a possibility. Nonetheless, it is argued, following Laurence Coupe’s mythic schema, that Atwood’s trilogy can be understood in an alternative s…
The Archaeology of Rock Art and Western Philosophy
The article aims to excavate some layers of Western philosophy in order to see how far Western thinkers can illuminate aspects of prehistoric rock art. It will focus on David Lewis-Williams's neuropsychological and shamanistic theory of San and prehistoric rock art, attempting to supplement his emphasis on states of consciousness with a focus on volition. The article thereby aims to theorise, in metaphysical terms, what the shamans may have been …
Animal ethics and human identity in JM Coetzee's The lives of animals
The article aims to position JM Coetzee's The lives of animals within the animal rights debate and assess both his use of and his failure to use key philosophical texts in the animal rights movement. This task is complicated by his adoption of the controversial persona, Elizabeth Costello, who paradoxically uses reason to attack reason and continuously evokes the Holocaust analogy. The paper attempts to understand her views in relation to the lea…
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Animal ethics and human identity in JM Coetzee's The lives of animals
The article aims to position JM Coetzee's The lives of animals within the animal rights debate and assess both his use of and his failure to use key philosophical texts in the animal rights movement. This task is complicated by his adoption of the controversial persona, Elizabeth Costello, who paradoxically uses reason to attack reason and continuously evokes the Holocaust analogy. The paper attempts to understand her views in relation to the lea…
The Archaeology of Rock Art and Western Philosophy
The article aims to excavate some layers of Western philosophy in order to see how far Western thinkers can illuminate aspects of prehistoric rock art. It will focus on David Lewis-Williams's neuropsychological and shamanistic theory of San and prehistoric rock art, attempting to supplement his emphasis on states of consciousness with a focus on volition. The article thereby aims to theorise, in metaphysical terms, what the shamans may have been …
Ecological Apocalypse in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy
Atwood comments that her MaddAddam trilogy is neither apocalyptic nor utopian. Nor is the Waterless Flood, the central catastrophic event around which the various narratives of the trilogy cohere, an ecological catastrophe, but, instead, is the consequence of an act of bioterrorism meant to forestall such a possibility. Nonetheless, it is argued, following Laurence Coupe’s mythic schema, that Atwood’s trilogy can be understood in an alternative s…
Strangers in Strange Worlds: Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy
Strangeness, based on the ambivalence of the uncanny, characterises both the pre-and post-apocalyptic worlds of Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy. Whereas Spiegel (2010) makes a convincing case for the neomedievalism of the corporation-dominated pre-apocalyptic world in Oryx and Crake, Atwood’s post-apocalyptic world can perhaps more aptly be described as Palaeolithic or Neolithic in the special sense of a return to the Stone Age. However, both…
“Stranger in a Strange Land”
On 15 April 2016, the South African Society for General Literary Studies/ \nSuid-Afrikaanse Vereniging vir Algemene Literatuurwetenskap (SASGLS/ \nSAVAL) hosted a colloquium at the University of South Africa on the topic \n“Stranger in a strange land”. The colloquium’s theme was taken from the \nKing James version of the Bible and refers to Moses’ sojourn in a foreign \ncountry after being exiled from Egypt, marrying his host’s daughter: “And \ns…
“Things Fall Apart”: Introduction to the Special Issue on the Theme of the 2017 SASGLS/Saval General Conference
Animal Studies, Decoloniality and San Rock Art and Myth
Animals occupy an ambivalent position in relation both to Western capitalist modernity and to decoloniality, one of modernity's most vehement opponents. Paradoxically, animals are equally central to and yet marginalised by these discourses, both of which are thoroughly anthropocentric. Racist discourses thrive on "animalising" groups of people, which can only work if the status of nonhuman animals is diminished. Modern agribusiness values nonhuma…
Lucy’s Precarious Privilege in Fiona Snyckers’s Lacuna
The article applies both Judith Butler’s notion of precarity and her Freudian approach to an analysis of Fiona Snyckers’s novel Lacuna (2019a). Using Freudian psychoanalysis to analyse the structure of Lucy’s trauma and to trace the process of her healing, I argue that, although the process is uneven and its outcome partial, it traces a movement from the darkness of her trauma to the illumination, following her name, of its cause as part of the p…
Durkheim’s totemic principle, shamanism and Southern African San religions
The study reappraised Emile Durkheim’s totemic principle in relation to the origins of religion and culture, using, amongst others, speech act theory and recent southern African epistemologies, especially David Lewis-Williams’ theory of shamanism, potency and altered states of consciousness. The study was text-based, qualitative and interpretive, and used key texts from anthropology, archaeology, history of religion, sociology and philosophy. It …
Schopenhauer and religion: Translating myth into metaphysics
The article assesses Arthur Schopenhauer’s reinterpretation of religious myths, particularly those of Christianity, in terms of his philosophical system, and applies his ideas to the mythical cosmology of shamanistic and animistic religions. Schopenhauer, a 19th-century Romantic philosopher, although an atheist himself, took religious myths very seriously, translating them into the terms of his metaphysical system. His view was that Roman Catholi…
The Art of Astonishment: Reflections on Gifts and Grace, by Alice Brittan
Philosophy (10 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · History (4 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (3 works) · Anthropology (3 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (3 works) · Art (3 works) · Gender Studies (3 works)