<p>This thesis examines how multilingual spaces in South Africa are imagined and reconstructed through the use of scripted codeswitching in 7de Laan. It explores how the socio-political discourses and other ideologies from the broader South African context shape and influence the ways in which the soap reconstructs multilingual spaces and the identities that exist within these spaces through language and language practices. In the literature presented in this study I explore various theories and case studies that examine Afrikaans and its indexicality in our&nbsp / contemporary society, the conventions of soap opera in representing &lsquo / reality&rsquo / to society, the role of codeswitching in multilingual mass communication, the policies and ideologies that govern post apartheid television and finally the link between ideology, the media, language and imagined identities.. These five overarching themes often overlap throughout this thesis. My investigation of the main questions set in this thesis is based on a triangulated analysis of (a) a five episode transcript of the soap, (b) solicited viewer perceptions gleaned from questionnaires and (c) unsolicited social media commentaries. This analysis is framed by a poststructuralist critical analysis with a specific focus on how social practices and contemporary ideologies manifest in the discourse of the soap. This approach views discourse as the juncture where identity, stereotypes and power are negotiated, enforced, imagined and challenged. In this thesis I argue that the conspicuous absence of indigenous African languages and the use of standard white Afrikaans as the lingua franca in the soap creates an unrealistic utopian portrayal of the new South Africa that naturalises white Afrikaans culture and marginalises other indigenous cultures and languages. I argue that the soap puts middle class white Afrikaners at the epicentre of South African society thus enforcing the idea that non-whites still need to conform to white Afrikaans standards and norms at the expense of their own culture and languages despite the inception of democracy. The soap offers no depictions of resistance to this dominant white Afrikaans culture, thus misleadingly portraying it as the uncontested dominant culture of the new South Africa.</p>

<p>This thesis examines how multilingual spaces in South Africa are imagined and reconstructed through the use of scripted codeswitching in 7de Laan. It explores how the socio-political discourses and other ideologies from the broader South African context shape and influence the ways in which the soap reconstructs multilingual spaces and the identities that exist within these spaces through language and language practices. In the literature presented in this study I explore various theories and case studies that examine Afrikaans and its indexicality in our&nbsp / contemporary society, the conventions of soap opera in representing &lsquo / reality&rsquo / to society, the role of codeswitching in multilingual mass communication, the policies and ideologies that govern post apartheid television and finally the link between ideology, the media, language and imagined identities.. These five overarching themes often overlap throughout this thesis. My investigation of the main questions set in this thesis is based on a triangulated analysis of (a) a five episode transcript of the soap, (b) solicited viewer perceptions gleaned from questionnaires and (c) unsolicited social media commentaries. This analysis is framed by a poststructuralist critical analysis with a specific focus on how social practices and contemporary ideologies manifest in the discourse of the soap. This approach views discourse as the juncture where identity, stereotypes and power are negotiated, enforced, imagined and challenged. In this thesis I argue that the conspicuous absence of indigenous African languages and the use of standard white Afrikaans as the lingua franca in the soap creates an unrealistic utopian portrayal of the new South Africa that naturalises white Afrikaans culture and marginalises other indigenous cultures and languages. I argue that the soap puts middle class white Afrikaners at the epicentre of South African society thus enforcing the idea that non-whites still need to conform to white Afrikaans standards and norms at the expense of their own culture and languages despite the inception of democracy. The soap offers no depictions of resistance to this dominant white Afrikaans culture, thus misleadingly portraying it as the uncontested dominant culture of the new South Africa.</p>

Magister Artium - MA / This thesis examines how multilingual spaces in South Africa are imagined and reconstructed through the use of scripted codeswitching in 7de Laan. It explores how the socio-political discourses and other ideologies from the broader South African context shape and influence the ways in which the soap reconstructs multilingual spaces and the identities that exist within these spaces through language and language practices. In the literature presented in this study I explore various theories and case studies that examine Afrikaans and its indexicality in our contemporary society, the conventions of soap opera in representing reality to society, the role of codeswitching in multilingual mass communication, the policies and ideologies that govern post apartheid television and finally the link between ideology, the media, language and imagined identities.. These five overarching themes often overlap throughout this thesis. My investigation of the main questions set in this thesis is based on a triangulated analysis of (a) a five episode transcript of the soap, (b) solicited viewer perceptions gleaned from questionnaires and (c) unsolicited social media commentaries. This analysis is framed by a poststructuralist critical analysis with a specific focus on how social practices and contemporary ideologies manifest in the discourse of the soap. This approach views discourse as the juncture where identity, stereotypes and power are negotiated, enforced, imagined and challenged. In this thesis I argue that the conspicuous absence of indigenous African languages and the use of standard white Afrikaans as the lingua franca in the soap creates an unrealistic utopian portrayal of the new South Africa that naturalises white Afrikaans culture and marginalises other indigenous cultures and languages. I argue that the soap puts middle class white Afrikaners at the epicentre of South African society thus enforcing the idea that non-whites still need to conform to white Afrikaans standards and norms at the expense of their own culture and languages despite the inception of democracy. The soap offers no depictions of resistance to this dominant white Afrikaans culture, thus misleadingly portraying it as the uncontested dominant culture of the new South Africa. / South Africa

Thesis (MPhil)-- Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates subtitling in 7de Laan, comparing episodes from 2007 to episodes from 2010 with a focus on figurative language. It is a quantitative, descriptive study and aims to determine the overall adequacy or acceptability of the subtitles, the translation strategies used, how figurative language and language varieties are translated and compares findings from 2007 to those of 2010 to establish whether there has been a change in approach over this period. The source text, 7de Laan, is discussed in Chapter 1, which also outlines how the study will proceed, the research problem and the research questions. Chapters 2 and 3 are the literature review of the relevant theories. Chapter 2 covers Descriptive Translation Studies and the translation of figurative language. The challenges particular to subtitling, specifically the constraints of the medium, are discussed in Chapter 3. The following two chapters are the analysis and each begins with the methodology used for that analysis. Chapter 4 is a macrolevel analysis of the corpus and determines the acceptability/adequacy of the subtitles, their governing translation norms and analyses the translation strategies used. More specific questions are answered in Chapter 5, which analyses the translation of figurative language, the representation of language varieties in the subtitles and the influence catering for a hearing-impaired audience has on translation decisions. The findings indicate that the subtitles of 7de Laan are mostly acceptable and that acceptability increases in 2010. The translation strategies used and their frequency of usage are similar over the years. However, there are slight changes: in 2010 there is less literal translation, more omission and fewer figurative-specific translation strategies are used. The findings further show that there is less figurative language in the subtitles in 2010. Additionally, there is a tendency of levelling out figurative language in both years which increases in 2010. The analysis of language varieties indicates that for sociolects, age markers influence the subtitles more than race markers do. Idiolects are rendered but how much of an idiolect is rendered depends on its markers. The analysis also finds that subtitling for hearing-impaired audiences is a significant factor in the translation process over and above the spatiotemporal constraint of subtitling. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die onderskrifte van 7de Laan. Dit vergelyk episodes van 2007 met episodes van 2010 en fokus op figuurlike taalgebruik. Die ondersoek is kwantitatief en beskrywend en wil die algehele geskiktheid (adequacy) of aanvaarbaarheid (acceptability) van die onderskrifte vasstel, asook die vertaalstrategieë wat gebruik is en die wyse waarop figuurlike taal en taalvariëteite vertaal word. Die bevindinge van 2007 word vergelyk met dié van 2010 om vas te stel of die vertaalbenadering in die tydperk verander het. Die bronteks, 7de Laan, word in hoofstuk 1 bespreek, wat ‘n oorsig gee oor hoe die studie verloop, die navorsingsprobleem en die navorsingsvrae. Hoofstuk 2 en 3 is die literatuurstudie van die relevante teorieë. Hoofstuk 2 dek beskrywende vertaalstudies (Descriptive Translation Studies) en die vertaling van figuurlike taal. Die probleem eie aan onderskrifte, veral die beperkings in die vertaalproses, word in hoofstuk 3 bespreek. Die volgende twee hoofstukke bestaan uit die ontleding en elke hoofstuk begin met die metodologie wat gebruik is vir daardie ontleding. Hoofstuk 4 is ‘n makrovlakontleding van die korpus en bepaal die geskiktheid/ aanvaarbaarheid van die onderskrifte, oorheersende norme en ontleed die vertaalstrategieë wat gebruik is. Meer spesifieke vrae word in hoofstuk 5 beantwoord, wat betref die vertaling van figuurlike taal, die oordra van taalvariëteite in die onderskrifte en die invloed van die inagneming van gehoorgestremde kykers op vertaalbesluite. Die bevindinge dui aan dat die onderskrifte van 7de Laan meestal aanvaarbaar is en dat aanvaarbaarheid in 2010 toegeneem het. Die vertaalstrategieë en die frekwensie van die gebruik daarvan het oor die jare nie veel verander nie. Daar is egter klein veranderings: in 2010 is daar minder letterlike vertalings, meer weglatings en minder vertaalstrategieë wat spesifiek op figuurlike taalgebruik gemik is. Die bevindings dui ook aan dat daar minder figuurlike taal in die 2010-onderskrifte is. Die ontleding van taalvariëteite toon dat, ten opsigte van sosiolekte, ouderdommerkers ‘n groter invloed op onderskrifte het as rasmerkers. Idiolekte word wel verteenwoordig, maar die mate daarvan word deur die idiolek se merkers bepaal. Die ontleding dui ook aan dat onderskrifte wat gerig is op gehoorgestremde kykers, ‘n groot faktor in die vertaalproses is, benewens die tydruimtelike beperking van onderskrifte as sodanig.

The main goal of this thesis was an investigation into the ways in which whiteness is constructed and positioned in the South African soap opera, 7de Laan, and the Flemish soap opera, Thuis, with the emphasis on the possible implications of these constructions for local as well as global discourses on whiteness in the media. In conjunction with the above, this thesis endeavoured to answer a number of subquestions relating to the origin and history of the construct of “whiteness” and Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) as a theoretical approach and its relevance in the South African and Flemish contexts, specifically as it pertains to the analysis of mass media texts like 7de Laan and Thuis. It, moreover, sought to explore if and how whiteness functions as an organising principle in the narratives and representations of these soap operas with the emphasis on potential similarities, differences and the kinds of whiteness constructed in these texts. Finally, the goal was to draw conclusions on the possible implications of these differences and similarities in the wider context of the way in which whiteness functions in the media. To that end I conducted a controlled case comparison of a sample from these two community soap opera texts, which was informed by a literature review and deep description of each context as part of the qualitative approach I chose to take. Despite a number of similarities between the two contexts, they still differ significantly, and this afforded me an opportunity to highlight both the consistencies and particularities in the ideological patterning of representations of whiteness, across seemingly unrelated domains, to illustrate its pervasiveness. Added to the emergence of three shared rhetorical devices perpetuating whiteness in both texts, I was also able to draw conclusions about the unique way in which whiteness functions in 7de Laan in particular, since South Africa remains the primary context of the study. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)