This
thesis
throws
into
relief
the
nomadic
meshings
of
sexualities
with
post/apartheid
cultural
politics.
It
explores
how,
why
and
with
what
effects
sexualities
and
post/apartheid
nationhood
have
been
imbricated
in
signal
events
and
phenomena.
Terms
used
to
construct
the
thesis’
title
each
allude
to
significant
events
and
processes
through
which
assemblages
of
nationhood,
sexualities,
gender
and
race
are
worked
on/with
in
particular
ways.
I
propose
that
these
events
form
a
prism
through
which
we
are
able
to
see
refracted
how
a
race-‐gender-‐sexuality
complex
becomes
a
pivotal
mechanism
through
which
post/apartheid
subjectivities,
embodiments,
nationhood
and
sovereignty
are
being
constructed
and
contested.
I
conclude
that
the
events
under
discussion
index
how
sexuality
is
both
a
site
of
political
contestation;
and,
a
central
and
crucial
component
of
post/apartheid
nationhood.
That
it
is
a
‘machinic
assemblage’,
which
conditions
and
constitutes
a
particular
field
of
the
political
including
a
popular
consciousness
of
the
post/apartheid
body
politic
and
sovereignty.
Presenting
qualitative
analysis
that
reflects
on
the
rhetorical
structures
evident
within
the
nationscapes
under
discussion,
I
analyse
and
make
reference
to
a
substantial
sample
of
media
representations
of,
and
discourses
about,
each
of
the
scenes
evaluated
across
the
thesis.
To
this
end,
I
focalise
what
Lauren
Berlant
has
termed,
the
‘National
Symbolic’;
an
imaginary,
chimerical
and
affect-‐laden
screen
projection
through
which
citizens
venture
to
‘grasp
the
nation
in
its
totality’.
This
interdisciplinary
project
both
draws
on
and
expands
the
South
African,
Feminist
and
Queer
Studies
Fields
and
is
influenced
by
what
Judith
Butler
calls
the
‘New
Gender
Politics’.
I
achieve
this
by
bringing
diverse
critical
perspectives
into
a
discursive
exchange
with
emerging
bodies
of
scholarship
concerned
with
questions
of
gender,
sexualities,
dis/ability
and
race
in
the
South
African
context.
I
introduce
novel,
or
previously
untapped,
theoretical
repertoires
to
pursue
unexplored
interpretive
horizons
that
generate
new
discourses
about
post/apartheid
sexuality
and
politics.
In
doing
so,
I
analyse
a
range
of
topics
including:
the
state’s
management
of
contemporary
virginity
practices
and
its
abstinence
messaging;
popular
anti-‐polygamy
discourse;
and,
critical
intersex
and
dis/ability
politics,
which
the
available
scholarship
has
not
addressed.
Although
President
Jacob
Zuma
is
not
the
subject
of
this
inquiry,
each
chapter
examines
events
and
developments
that
are
both
explicitly,
and
more
implicitly,
associated
with
his
presidency.
These
events
have
unfolded
during
a
later
period
of
the
post/apartheid
dispensation;
sometimes
called
the
post
post/apartheid
period.
I
have
written
about
a
time
that
marked
a
conservative
twist
in
the
transition,
which
is
not
imagined
as
a
teleological
process.
This
is
a
perplexing
time
of
uneven
shifts
where
old
things
seem
to
be
hardening
even
as
they
are
simultaneously
thinning
or
leaking
away
while
new
things
are
emerging
in
unpredictable
rhythms
and
forms.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/15418 |
| Date | 05 September 2014 |
| Creators | Robillard, Benita de |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 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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