Thesis (MDram)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The appearance of actresses on stage during the seventeenth century gave rise to the discarding of gender boundaries and the exploration of male characters. By investigating the cause and effect and the critical value of actresses assuming breeches parts (“broekrolle”) within specific historical time lines and theatrical traditions, and a comparative study of the creation and portrayal of breeches parts within a South African context, I will endeavour to assess the success of the assumption of male characters on the stage. Actresses performing breeches parts were not necessarily in competition with their male counterparts, but were often influenced by their socio-economic situations, as well as their natural inclination to male identities. The appearance or beauty of the female performer has almost always been a defining factor in the casting of a part and it is therefore possible that some actresses chose to perform breeches parts because their natural attributes might not have fallen within the general concept of beauty. Although the assumption of male characters was often categorized as sensation seeking and selfglorification, it was accepted during certain historical periods and the theatrical traditions of the time. Breeches parts contributed towards the actress’s level of skills, and thus to their financial gain. Within a South African context a comparative and personal perception will be investigated in relation to the experiences of the above-mentioned actresses. Because of the hybrid quality of the character of Ella/Max Gericke in As die Broek Pas (Man to Man), in other words, the duality of her performed identity, the breeches part of Ella/Max differs from the traditional concept of breeches performances. This aspect contributes to the process of self-assessment through performance as research – situated knowledge. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die vroulike toneelspeler het reeds gedurende die laat sewentiende eeu oor geslagsgrense heen manskarakters (broekrolle) begin vertolk. Deur ondersoek in te stel na die oorsake, gevolge en kritiese waarde van aktrises se aanneming van broekrolle binne ’n spesifieke tydruimte en teaterkonvensies en ’n vergelykende proses wat hierdie skepping en uitbeelding van ’n broekrol in kontemporêre Suid-Afrika belig, kan gepoog word om te bepaal hoe suksesvol hierdie geslagsaanneming op die dramatiese ruimte van die verhoog was en is. Die emansipasie van die vrou en die ontbanning van vroulike toneelspelers het dit vir aktrises moontlik gemaak om buite hulle tradisionele geslagsraamwerk die toneelkarakters van die man te betree en te ontgin. Hierdie toetrede tot broekrolle (“breeches parts”) was nie noodwendig ’n poging om met die man op sy gebied te wedywer nie, maar kan toegeskryf word aan sosio-ekonomiese toestande, sowel as ’n natuurlike voorkeur vir ’n manlike identiteit. Die aktrise se voorkoms is en was nog altyd ’n bepalende faktor ten opsigte van die rolle waarin sy beset word. Dit is dus verstaanbaar dat sommige aktrises uit die aard van hulle ingesteldheid teenoor hul eie voorkoms die keuse maak om manskarakters te vertolk. Die gevolge van hierdie aanneming van manlike karakters is soms as sensasionele vertoon en selfverheerliking beskou, maar is steeds aanvaar binne die teaterkonvensies van sekere tydperke. Daarbenewens het dit die betrokke aktrises se aansien ten opsigte van hulle vaardighede op die verhoog en hul ekonomiese status positief beïnvloed. Die persoonlike gewaarwordinge wat ten opsigte van ’n vergelykende proses binne ’n Suid- Afrikaanse konteks gevolg is, sluit aan by die navorsing oor genoemde broekrolvertolkers. Daar is wel verskille, aangesien die geval van Ella/Max Gericke in As die Broek Pas, nie binne die tradisionele opset van die broekrol val nie, as gevolg van die dualiteit wat in die broekrol teenwoordig is, en dit as ’n hibriede karakter gesien kan word. Hierdie aspek leen hom tot kritiese selfevaluasie binne die gebruik van “performance” as navorsing – “situated knowledge”.

The subject of mental illness and the various disorders associated with it, is frequently sensationalized and capitalized upon in visual art forms. In cinema, many narratives have addressed or challenged public conceptions of mental illnesses, raising concerns about socially relatable consequences such as stigma. The main body of this thesis is structured around mental health educational films produced for didactic use within the United States during the 1950s. Following the end of the Second World War, the formation of the United Nations and the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the late 1940s, the 1950s is argued to constitute a shift in approach on how mental health treatment was to be presented to the public. Topics such as illness, post-war, stigma and institutionalization are explored in three case studies – Man to Man (Irving Jacoby, 1953), Mental Hospital (Leyton Mabrey, 1953), and Back Into the Sun (Fergus McDonell, 1958).

This study constitutes an inquiry into how Olive Schreiner‟s peripheral position as a colonial woman writer enabled her rewriting of feminine identity, specifically her subversion of Victorian feminine stereotypes. I focus particular attention on three novels: The Story of an African Farm (1890), and the posthumously published From Man to Man (1926) and Undine (1929). I employ a feminist literary approach to examine how Schreiner‟s hybrid identity as a British South African enabled her revisioning of femininity. If Schreiner is situated within the context of her time, it can be demonstrated that her negotiations of feminine identity are influenced by her dual intellectual and cultural heritage. On the one hand, she can be situated within a British tradition of women‟s writing – in particular, the New Woman fiction which emerged in the late nineteenth century. On the other hand, she can be situated within a nascent South African literary tradition – and demonstrates prototypically post-colonial concerns. Schreiner‟s writing style develops out of her colonial heritage and her experiences as a woman living in a patriarchal society. The resultant voice subverts the narrative traditions of the metropolitan novel in an attempt to articulate an alternative view of femininity. I examine in detail how Schreiner undermines and subverts Victorian stereotypes, and focus particular attention on the „fallen woman‟ and the „mother-figure‟. She attempts to challenge conventional Victorian conceptions of femininity by erasing the binary between the „angel‟ and the „whore‟ in order to create a New Woman. In Undine and The Story of an African Farm the full realisation of this New Woman is deferred, since both protagonists die, but From Man to Man is more nuanced, particularly in its emphasis on economic empowerment for women. Schreiner also destabilises traditional notions of motherhood, in order to offer glimpses of an alternative maternal role. It is my contention that, in her depiction of mother-figures and (un)fallen women, Schreiner challenges stock Victorian notions of femininity and, in the process, creates a space in which new possibilities for women can be imagined and negotiated.