This
research
report
examines
the
period
of
1950s
Sophiatown
and
its
socio-‐cultural
legacy
pertaining
to
race
and
gender.
Though
the
establishment
of
a
cosmopolitan
black
identity
was
significant
in
its
undermining
of
Nationalist
Party
segregationist
ideology,
the
struggle
for
equality
was
predicated
on
a
racial
struggle
that
subsumed
a
gendered
agenda.
The
work
of
Can
Themba
and
Drum
magazine,
which
have
become
mythologized
in
the
contemporary
South
African
imaginary,
are
interrogated
with
particular
emphasis
on
one
of
Themba’s
iconic
pieces,
The
Suit.
Through
engagement
with
Themba’s
text,
this
research
report
foregrounds
the
processes
through
which
black
women
have
been
subjected
to
multiple,
compounded
subjugation.
In
response
to
the
representations
of
black
femininity
in
The
Suit,
the
film
component
of
this
report,
The
Tailored
Suit,
privileges
the
black
woman,
Matilda’s,
articulations.
It
thus
functions
to
foreground
the
agency
of
marginalised
subjects.
In
articulating
from
the
periphery,
the
subjugated
destabilise
the
hierarchical
social
structures
that
would
subordinate
and
objectify
them.
By
engaging
the
representations
in
The
Suit,
part
of
an
iconic
historic
moment
prefiguring
the
contemporary
socio-‐cultural
milieu,
the
reimagining
in
The
Tailored
Suit
offers
a
fragmented
frame
of
reference,
positing
an
alternative
to
a
homogenising
masculine
discourse
on
history.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/10443 |
| Date | 22 September 2011 |
| Creators | Lelliott, Kitso Lynn |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
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