Rick De Villiers
Biographic Data
| ID | 3947853 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rick De Villiers |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rick |
| FAMILY NAME | De Villiers |
| SIGNATURE | DE VILLIERS R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Free State |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7254-1231 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 5 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 5 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Poetic Licentiousness and the Destitutions of High Culture
In his primer for chroniclers of the African condition, the Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina makes a modest proposal: exploit the poor.1 Protruding ribs, fly-tormented eyelids and the potbellies of skeletal children are key. Other essentials include careful descriptions of crumbling infrastructure and rotting (black) corpses. The same depth and detail should not extend to the characters themselves. ‘The Starving African can have no past, no hist…
Transgeneric Assessment
The essay is one mode of expression, a discursive genre among many. But given its monolithic status as assessment tool in the humanities, this relativity is sometimes overlooked. Such modal inflexibility is still more puzzling given that syllabus changes have recently been driven by inclusivity and varieties of learning experience. Opening onto this variety, the present article asks whether students’ critical thinking could be strengthened by the…
Alternative avatars of the plagiarist, or, an embarrassment of glitches
What is the relation between plagiarism and embarrassment? What unspoken rules dictate our responses to improper literary behaviour? Addressing these questions against the backdrop of South African author Willem Anker’s substantial ‘borrowings’ from Samuel Beckett, this article proposes three alternative avatars – the catfish, hacker, and emperor – to displace Martial’s archetypal plagiarius or enslaver. The catfish is an impostor, an appropriato…
What can you do with a Story Like This[?]”
The question – “how does fiction respond to nonfiction?” – implies several others. One has to do with a special kind of mimesis and asks whether formal aspects of the ‘documentary’ mode are directive for fictional modes. Another question pertains to motives. This article addresses the latter, but with an eye on criticism itself. It argues against instrumental readings that promote aesthetic values on the basis of ethical values, not because this …
Narrative (De)construction
The article offers a deconstructive reading of J.M. Coetzee's Foe and attempts both to explain and to reveal the abusive writing employed by each of the “authors” (Susan Barton, Foe, Daniel Defoe, J.M. Coetzee) in the novel. It operates within a Derridean framework, tracing the concepts of supplementation and origin in the text to indicate how the novel simultaneously collapses and conceals its own narrative practices. Like its object, the analys…
No prominent works on this page.
Narrative (De)construction
The article offers a deconstructive reading of J.M. Coetzee's Foe and attempts both to explain and to reveal the abusive writing employed by each of the “authors” (Susan Barton, Foe, Daniel Defoe, J.M. Coetzee) in the novel. It operates within a Derridean framework, tracing the concepts of supplementation and origin in the text to indicate how the novel simultaneously collapses and conceals its own narrative practices. Like its object, the analys…
What can you do with a Story Like This[?]”
The question – “how does fiction respond to nonfiction?” – implies several others. One has to do with a special kind of mimesis and asks whether formal aspects of the ‘documentary’ mode are directive for fictional modes. Another question pertains to motives. This article addresses the latter, but with an eye on criticism itself. It argues against instrumental readings that promote aesthetic values on the basis of ethical values, not because this …
Alternative avatars of the plagiarist, or, an embarrassment of glitches
What is the relation between plagiarism and embarrassment? What unspoken rules dictate our responses to improper literary behaviour? Addressing these questions against the backdrop of South African author Willem Anker’s substantial ‘borrowings’ from Samuel Beckett, this article proposes three alternative avatars – the catfish, hacker, and emperor – to displace Martial’s archetypal plagiarius or enslaver. The catfish is an impostor, an appropriato…
Poetic Licentiousness and the Destitutions of High Culture
In his primer for chroniclers of the African condition, the Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina makes a modest proposal: exploit the poor.1 Protruding ribs, fly-tormented eyelids and the potbellies of skeletal children are key. Other essentials include careful descriptions of crumbling infrastructure and rotting (black) corpses. The same depth and detail should not extend to the characters themselves. ‘The Starving African can have no past, no hist…
Transgeneric Assessment
The essay is one mode of expression, a discursive genre among many. But given its monolithic status as assessment tool in the humanities, this relativity is sometimes overlooked. Such modal inflexibility is still more puzzling given that syllabus changes have recently been driven by inclusivity and varieties of learning experience. Opening onto this variety, the present article asks whether students’ critical thinking could be strengthened by the…
Art (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Literature (4 works) · Aesthetics (3 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Narrative Theory and Analysis (2 works) · Political science (2 works) · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies (2 works)