Dr Tilla Slabbert

Senior Lecturer
MA (UJ) D.Litt et Phil (Unisa)
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TEACHING AREAS

Life writing; Ecocriticism; Mythification and remythification in postmodern short stories; (South) African Short Stories
19th century South African literature; Transnational Narratives.

RESEARCH AREAS

Life writing / Travel Writing; Ecocriticism (Environmental Studies of the Humanities); Gender Studies; Postcolonial Studies; Myth and folklore in contemporary narratives.

PUBLICATIONS 

BOOKS
  • De Villiers, Dawid and Slabbert, Mathilda. David Kramer: a biography. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2011. [also translated into Afrikaans by Francois Smith]
BOOK CHAPTERS
  • “Navigating Gariep Country: Writing nature and culture in Borderline by William Dicey”. The Natures of Africa: Ecocriticism and Animal Studies in Contemporary Cultural Forms. ed. Fiona Moolla. Wits University Press, 2016: 187-211.
  • “‘Thrills and Quills: masculinity and location in three South African travel narratives (1834-1900)”. Britain and the Narration of Travel in the Nineteenth Century. Ed. Kate Hill. Ashgate/Routledge, 2016: 109-128.
  • “‘These people are my people, these places are my places’: Cultural Hybridity and Identity in the work of South African artist, David Kramer.” Locating Life Stories: Beyond East-West Binaries in (Auto)Biographical Studies. Perkins, Maureen. (ed), Centre for Biographical Research, Honolulu, Hawaii Press, 2011: 55-82.
  • “Inventions and transformation: imagining new world in the stories of Neil Gaiman” in Fairytales Reimagined: Essays on New Retellings. Susan. R. Bobby (ed). Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland Press. 2009: 68-83.
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
  • Slabbert, M. “Animals and nature: mapping storylines and metaphors in David Kramer’s narratives”. Literator, 32(1), 2011.
  • Slabbert, M and Viljoen, L. “Despair and Restoration: creativity and the author in A.L. Kennedy’s Everything You Need”. Acta Academica, 40(4), 2008.
  • Slabbert, M and Viljoen, L. “Sustaining the imaginative life: mythology and fantasy in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods”. Literator, 27(3), 2006.
  • Slabbert, M. “Canine agents in two South African short stories”. Journal of Literary Studies. Vol 55 (3), 2018: 134-151. DOI 10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i3.5509
  • Slabbert, M. “Forming “affective communities” and narrative forms of affection: Damon Galgut’s Arctic Summer”. Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies. 19(1), 2019: 1-18.   DOI 10.1080/17533171.2019.1551736
  • Slabbert, M. and Moolla, F. F. and Murray, S. “The Textualities of the AutobiogrAfrical. a/b: AutoBiography Studies. 35 (3), 2020: 519-532. DOI 10.1080/08989575.2020.1759870
REVIEWS AND CREATIVE WRITING
ONLINE PUBLICATIONS

“Fraktering en destabilisasie in ekopoësie en gedigte van Martjie Bosman”, requested by LitNet Akademies (24 July 2012) in response to Susan Smith’s article “Die aard van ekopoësie teen die agtergrond van die ekokritiese teorie met verwysing na enkele gedigte van Martjie Bosman,”
LitNet Akademies (12 June 2012).

SCREEN MEDIA
  • Literature researcher for television series South Africa: A Country Imagined, produced by Curious Pictures, Auckland Park, Johannesburg and presented by Johnny Clegg (first screening SABC 2 on 24th April 2010).