Student Number : 9900639H -
MA research report -
School of Dramatic Art -
Faculty of Humanities / This report is concerned with analysing the cinematic representations of the
‘township space’ and its articulation of black masculinity in two post apartheid
South African films – Wooden Camera directed by Ntshaveni Wa Luruli and
Tsotsi directed by Gavin Hood. I argue that the ‘township space’ has become a
fetishised cinematic trope in post-apartheid South African filmmaking.
Cinematic representation’s of the space of the township articulates the
performance of black identity associated with criminality, excessive violence
and deviancy relegating the black experience to one of ‘otherness’. In this report
I argue that the ‘Cinematic Township’ predetermines a black identity that
appears to be shot through a colonial lens, or from an ‘outsider’s point-of-view’.
This space developed on the fringes of major cities was developed - through
Afrikaner Nationalist Ideologies - as a ‘port’ into major cities. The township was
constructed through a process of ‘othering’ and is often represented as the
manageable part of modernity for ‘black identity’. Cinematically there appears
to be a ‘fixing’ or ‘freezing’ of an authentic black experience within the
‘township space’ that essentialises black identity and the black experience.
Apart from analysing the cinematic representations of the ‘township space’ and
the manner in which space determines sexuality and identity, this report speaks
to issues of representation and who can claim the rights to representation in
post-apartheid South Africa (Thiong’o, 2000 and Axel, 1999). The South
African filmmaking landscape is unique because of the interesting mix of
‘white’ and ‘black’ filmmakers. This raises questions about ‘Racialised
Africanness’ and what are the implications for ‘African whiteness’? These are
important issues in relation to the South African post-apartheid body politic and
the role of the filmmaker in post-apartheid South African cinema. In this paper I
suggest that the cinematic township is representative of the fetishisation of the
‘township space’ in the imagination and representations of post-apartheid
filmmakers. The ‘township space’ has transcended its political memory and
appears to be invested with nostalgia and myth-making.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/2023 |
| Date | 16 February 2007 |
| Creators | Ellapen, Jordache |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 179136 bytes, 24312 bytes, 31050 bytes, 72247 bytes, 19883 bytes, 38140 bytes, 163360 bytes, 227347 bytes, 205048 bytes, 218804 bytes, 141612 bytes, 42040 bytes, 53781 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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