Department of Afrikaans and Theory of Literature

Prof RA Northover

College of Human Sciences
School of Arts
Department: Afrikaans and Theory of Literature
Professor
Tel: 012 429 6794
E-mail: northra@unisa.ac.za

Qualifications

  • BA (Ed) (Wits)
  • BA Hons (Wits)
  • MA (Wits)
  • PhD (UP) (JM Coetzee and animal rights: Elizabeth Costello’s challenge to philosophy)

Currently teaching

  • THL3704
  • HMATL80
  • HRATL81

Fields of academic interests

  • The work of J.M. Coetzee
  • Margaret Atwood’s speculative fiction
  • Animal studies (animal ethics), green studies, ecocriticism
  • Prehistoric rock art
  • General literary theory, critical theory and philosophy

Journal articles

  • Schopenhauer and religion: Translating myth into metaphysics. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 78(2), a7788.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v78i2.7788

  • Durkheim’s totemic principle, shamanism and Southern African San religions. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 77(2), a6709.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v77i2.6709

  • 2020. Lucy’s Precarious Privilege in Fiona Snyckers’s Lacuna. Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa. DOI: 10.1080/1013929X.2020.1795344
  • 2019. Animal Studies, Decoloniality and San Rock Art and Myth. Journal of Literary Studies, 35:3, 108-125, DOI: 10.1080/02564718.2019.1657286 
  • 2017. Strangers in Strange Worlds: Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy. Journal of Literary Studies, 33:1, 121-137, DOI:10.1080/02564718.2017.1290384
  • 2017. Interrogating the sacred art of Vetkat Regopstaan Boesman Kruiper. In Indigenous Knowledges, edited by Susan McHugh and Wendy Woodward. Palgrave-Macmillan.
  • 2016. Ecological apocalypse in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy. Studia Neophilologica, Vol. 88, Issue 1, 81-95. DOI: 10.1080/00393274.2015.1096044.

Professional positions, fellowships & awards

  • Editor of the Journal of Literary Studies
  • Member of the Rock Art Research Institute (Wits)
  • Member of the Archaeological Society of South Africa
  • Member of the Coetzee Collective (UCT)
  • Member of Acad-Myth (Essex)
  • Member of Minding Animals International

Projects

  • The GetOn Community Outreach Project