It is against the social and cultural backdrop of South Africa that I investigate gender performativity in South African films with reference to Leon Schuster’s comedies; There’s a Zulu on my Stoep (1993), Mr Bones (2001); Mama Jack (2005) and Mad Buddies (2012). Leon Schuster is responsible for the most commercially successfully films produced in Africa. The significance of this research lends itself to the notion that the trends and tendencies of contemporary culture are defined by what is represented and learnt through constructed representations in mainstream media such as film. For the purpose of this study, gender representation and comedy within the framework of South African film are the main foci. There appears to be very little written on comedy and gender, specifically in a South African context. Judith Butler’s performativity theory forms the methodological foundation of analysis of the representation of gender in Schuster’s films. In addition, visual textual and constant comparison analysis are used as part of the methodological framework of this study. Due to the lack of literature on South African film comedy, the general understanding of comedy refers to the film genre as being a catalyst for transformation. It is also suggested that social control is reinforced and therefore, upholds societal and cultural ideologies in comedy. Satire is also found to postulate a preferred comedic mechanism to criticise ideologies in countries with repressive regimes. South African comedy is also understood to contribute towards tension relief in such countries through the means of facilitating laughter. In a general framework, as well as Schuster’s film comedies, gender representation and therefore that of gender performativity is found to conform to stereotypical conventions of males and females which ultimately maintains the ideals of the creators and the contextual ideologies they stand to represent and serve. By making representations of gender and that of gender performativity laughable, Schuster’s comedies can be said to raise awareness of the gender differences and inequalities in representations. The stereotypes which ultimately highlight gender inequality in the films, follows that of cultural, social and traditional norms. Keywords; gender; performativity; South African film; Leon Schuster; comedy. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Afrikaans / Unrestricted

In terms of both production and consumption, video games and gaming are a significant phenomenon in Russia, a fact acknowledged by the authorities and mainstream media. Although internet use in Russia has been a point of academic interest over the past few years, scholars have been slower to research video games despite their increasingly popular position in the media ecology of the region. Similarly, despite the abundance of theory and data on gaming in North America and Europe, game studies researchers have hardly skimmed the surface of the cultures, preferences and activities of gamers further afield. This dissertation investigates the online gaming sphere in Russia, presenting an empirical study of the industry, providing insight into gamers themselves, and analysing the media and political discourses surrounding gaming in Russia. In this study, I draw upon survey data, forum, website, and blog posts, user comments from gaming forums and analyses of local games to construct a picture of gaming activity and identity amongst gamers. In particular, I show how Russian-speaking gamers present themselves as members of a distinct subcultural group. Online gamers who participated in this study are shown to consume and discuss games in ways that can differ from elsewhere in the world, but they still retain common beliefs about the importance of expertise, taste and self-discipline within the gaming community. They display a great deal of knowledge about the games and communities available to them locally, while also consuming foreign games in selective and critical ways. For the reader conversant with game studies work, the dissertation constitutes a challenge to West-centric theories of gaming and gamers and demonstrates the importance of cultural context in shaping gaming practice. Throughout the dissertation, interactions between global and local, media and subcultural definitions of ‘gamer’ are crucial to understanding how gaming plays out in a Russian context. The self-definition of gamers differs greatly from mainstream media concepts of gamers. I contextualise discourses of the gaming self within an analysis of how the Russian media presents gamers as young people in need of moral and emotional guidance. Moreover, I show how contemporary media assessments of games and gamers have much in common with earlier moral panics about Western-inflected media and subcultures, such as rock music and style. Ultimately the gaming landscape in Russia is shown to be full of tensions, and the task of this dissertation is to identify, assess and compare these disparate discourses.

The dissertation examines the field of popular magazines in 1930s Italy, by first examining the broad field of magazine production under Fascism and then undertaking three case studies of individual magazines - L'Avventuroso (1934 - 1943), Omnibus (1937 - 1939), and Grazia (1938 -) - in order to build an in-depth analysis of the production, format and reception of the popular press in this period. In the interwar years, and in particular from 1934 onwards, innovative printing techniques and production methods transformed the periodical press worldwide. The emergence of new forms of illustrated magazines expanded the readership and started a process of standardisation and mass production of periodicals. The dissemination in Italy of the rotocalco, a new product aimed at the masses that was developed in the 1930s, offers a particularly interesting starting point for analysing the development of a modern Italian mass press and culture within the peculiar dynamics of a controlling Fascist regime and the mixed national and international forces that shaped it. Modern Italian magazines developed in dialogue with foreign industries, imitating models from abroad and adapting them to the Italian culture. The development of popular press in the 1930s represented a challenge for the Fascist regime, which approached it both as a threat and an opportunity to shape Italian popular culture. Through the analysis of three case studies, each from a key sector of popular press - comics, general cultural magazines, and women's magazines - and each produced by one of the three main publishing companies in the field - Nerbini, Rizzoli, and Mondadori - the dissertation aims to provide a detailed picture of the development of mass print culture in Italy during Fascism. The analysis provides examples of the impact of and cracks in Fascist censorship and cultural autarchy on the periodical press and argues that the Italian popular press developed in dialogue with European and American culture, which influenced both the form and content of rotocalchi, reinterpreting and adapting these models to Italian standards and to the constrictions of Fascist control.

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