Unisa Press Journals (University of South Africa)
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Finding the Power in Not Telling: A Critical Exploration of the Strategies Used by South African Writers to Avoid Apartheid Literary Censorship from the 1950s to the 1980s
No full textOne of the most unfortunate circumstances that characterised apartheid South Africa was the banning of writers whose literary works were deemed undesirable and/or offensive by the then government. The banning of writers and their artistic works was driven by the need to prevent literary artists from the alleged peddling of falsehood about apartheid and its deleterious effects on the majority of Black South Africans. It was this censorious climate in the history of South African politics that prompted various scholars to interrogate the effects of apartheid’s identitarian policies and censorship especially on writers in general. While some looked at why literature became the object of repressive measures under apartheid South Africa in particular, others traced the historical continuum on how literature came to be viewed as a phenomenon in need of regulation in the world in general. This article observes that none of the existing studies looks at the strategies employed by writers, amid serious repressive measures and censorial mechanisms put in place, to expose the injustices faced by Africans under apartheid. The article sought to investigate various strategies used by John Maxwell Coetzee, James Matthews, Dyke Sontse, Ezekiel Mphahlele, and Nadine Gordimer in their respective literary works to expose the effects of apartheid policies on South Africans. To achieve this, the article critically analysed selected short stories and novels written from the 1950s to the 1980s—a period during which censorship laws were constantly revised and tightened to deprive writers of freedom of expression. The findings of this study revealed that writers employed complex narrative strategies such as, amongst others, omission and concealment, symbolism, and allegorism to find spaces within the censorious system to get their voices heard
Darkening Blackness: Race, Gender, Class, and Pessimism in 21st-Century Black Thought, by Norman Ajari
No full textRepurposing Fear in Contemporary South African Culture – a Critical Criminological Perspective
No full textConflict criminologists argue that criminal justice systems in contemporary capitalist, consumer societies exemplify a “Pyrrhic defeat”. According to Reiman and Leighton’s Pyrrhic defeat theory, the “defeat” in the fight against crime is designed to fail, since it serves the important objective of spotlighting the conventional crimes of the poor, while obfuscating the possibly even more monstrous crimes of the wealthy and powerful. In this article, I subject the concept of “culture” to scrutiny within a critical criminological theoretical framework. I also demonstrate how fear has been repurposed as a potent element of contemporary South African culture to achieve this objective. This was facilitated by perpetuating rape, disaster capitalism (notably committed during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic) and xenophobic hate crimes. By keeping this “fear factory” operational, I argue that the South African government has been able to perpetrate state crimes largely surreptitiously by repurposing this curious element (fear) of South African culture
Song 7:2–6 [Eng: 1–5] as a Symphony of Poetry, Metaphor, and Passion
No full textSong 7:2–6 is (in)famous for how the man describes his beloved, from feet to head, with one seemingly ridiculous metaphor after another. While the aesthetic sense of these metaphors may seem odd to westerners, it was highly unlikely to be such for its original audiences. Thus, the fundamental question for biblical scholars, especially those concerned with metaphor is: How does the poet employ the visual similarities in the metaphorical imagery to allow readers/hearers access to how the man both perceives and conceptualises the physical beauty of his beloved? In other words, how can we as readers take the metaphors seriously without obliterating the metaphorical imagery? This article seeks to answer this question by employing a complexity approach which integrates poetic rhythm (additionally borrowing the concept of deceptive cadence from music), linguistic approaches to poetic parallelism, the use of emotion in lyric poetry, and metaphor analyses. This symphony of analyses hopes to explain how the metaphors function as a unity within the poetry’s rhythm, building toward a peak to express the man’s desire and excitement for his beloved. It concludes by offering an interpretation of the final verse’s interpretively difficult description of the woman’s hair as crimson, explaining how the woman’s head as Mount Carmel during a fiery sunset serves as a fitting conclusion to the poem that provides a befitting climactic closure for conveying the man’s desire for his beloved
Robotic Narrative, Mindreading and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun
No full textBringing into dialogue the theory of mindreading reformulated within cognitive narratology, this article offers an analysis of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (2021). It argues that Ishiguro extends this theory beyond human minds to nonhuman minds and human-machine bonds to explore human minds as human essence. By examining an artificial-intelligence (AI) character-narrator’s struggle to read human minds through observation, this study draws two conclusions. Firstly, machines cannot comprehend entire human minds due to their complexity and variability. A mind encompasses not only an individual’s own intricate thoughts and emotions but also others’ diverse feelings about this individual. Secondly, both humans and machines engage in one-sided mindreading without eliciting reciprocal affective responses. This suggests that the limitations of robotic mindreading, coupled with human anthropocentrism, prevent the establishment of true human-machine intersubjectivity. By illustrating machines’ incapability to possess human minds through robotic narrative, Ishiguro offers a new perspective on the theory of mindreading, asserting the irreplaceable nature of human minds in the age of AI to prompt a reflection on the uniqueness of human minds, a realm that machines cannot replicate or transfer
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Maternal Ambivalence in Avni Doshi’s Burnt Sugar
No full textScholars and philosophers of motherhood studies have continuously highlighted the contradictions in the dominant cultural ideologies of motherhood and the lived experiences of mothers. While the ideologies define the mother as selfless, unconditional, and unequivocal in her love for her children, the actual experience, psychological and sociocultural studies reveal, is often permeated with negative, violent, and conflicting emotions towards children, known as maternal ambivalence. In India, where the idealisation blatantly spills over to deification, voicing such feelings becomes sacrilegious. This paper attempts to study how the novel Burnt Sugar (2020) by Avni Doshi dares to speak the “unspeakable” and demonstrates maternal ambivalence as resulting from a combination of psychological, social, and cultural factors. The analysis looks at how the text negotiates the interspace between daughter-centricity and matrifocality in women’s writing by giving voice to ambivalences on both sides of the mother’s experience—of mothering and being mothered. Ultimately, this study investigates the manner in which these feelings, which are not acknowledged within cultural conceptions of the mother, result in ambivalence and trauma across generations
Ambiguous Women: Complicating Gendered Readings of Beth Dutton and Monica Dutton in Yellowstone
No full textFor five seasons, Yellowstone (2018) has been polarizing on many fronts and creating an ambiguous understanding of its political agenda and positioning. This article explores the depiction of female characters as one of these fronts. With a focus on Beth and Monica Dutton, the analysis seeks to point to the ways in which female characters are presented in ambiguous ways with regard to their gender performances and their correspondence to (racialised) stereotypes. As the characters evoke notions of potential empowerment for (Native American) women, it is crucial to examine them as sites in which gender and race are being contested. Beth and Monica Dutton mirror the ambiguous political nature of Yellowstone because while both characters appear progressive at times, they also reinforce antiquated notions about gender (and race). By conceptualising Beth as a female rendition of the action hero and Monica as a modern interpretation of the Celluloid Maiden trope, this paper addresses this ambiguity and debates in how far these representations can be considered progressive or empowering. While Beth appears empowering on the surface, her reversion into traditional gender roles and her internalised sexism inhibit such empowering effect. Moreover, because of her resemblance to the Celluloid Maiden trope, the lack of depth to her character, and her inauthentic casting, Monica does little to advance the fight for empowering representations of Native American women. Rooted in postcolonial feminist culture studies, this paper discusses what makes these characters ambiguous and whether or not they can be considered empowering at all
Refiguring in Black, by Tendayi Sithole
No full textRefiguring in Black, by Tendayi Sithole
Polity Press. 2023. viii + 158.
ISBN: HB: 13: 978-1-5095-5071-1; PB: 13: 978-1-5095-5702-8
Athambile Masola
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9550-7944
University of Cape Town
[email protected]
Discourses on Opioid Addiction and Its Treatment and Management in South Africa Since 2000: A Systematic Review
No full textIn this article, we undertake a systematic review of the opioid addiction crisis in South Africa, with a particular focus on the country’s response since the emergence of the drug around 2000. The spotlight is on a specific opioid locally known as whoonga or nyaope, which has been driving a significant increase in addiction, particularly among youths in marginalised communities, including townships and squatter settlements. Drawing parallels with the past HIV/AIDS epidemic, characterised by delayed responses and enduring consequences, we provide a comprehensive overview of the ways in which South Africa has been dealing with this challenge. Driven by a solution-based approach, we present the prevailing discourses, extract insights from the country’s documented response, and invite innovative approaches for dealing with the drug that are tailored to the South African context
Providing During a Pandemic: A Scoping Review of Female Breadwinners
No full textThe outbreak of COVID-19 has had negative impacts on many communities across the globe, and, in particular, these impacts have disproportionately affected women. Indeed, preliminary research and reporting on the effects of the pandemic indicate an upsurge of various forms of gender-based inequities in the workplaces and homes of women. In this article, I consider these inequitable effects via the experiences of a particularly vulnerable group of women: female breadwinners. Women who undertake the role as breadwinners overcome traditional notions of gender by becoming breadwinners in their homes and providing primary financial support for their families. By contextualising the lived experiences of female breadwinners through a feminist theoretical framework, we can comprehend their experiences of multiple forms of discrimination and vulnerability, as magnified by COVID-19. Awareness of the challenges faced by female breadwinners, in South Africa and across the globe, encourages gender-sensitive and contextualised interpretations of their experiences during COVID-19. Through a scoping review of recent local and international research, this article exposes the perpetual discriminations of gender in many communities that affected the ability of female breadwinners to provide during the pandemic. In understanding how these women make meaning of and negotiate their roles as breadwinners, this article highlights the literature gap concerning the experiences of female breadwinners during COVID-19. Considering gender-based polyvictimisations amplified by the pandemic, the article further deliberates on recommendations to ameliorate the lived experiences of female breadwinners