Theses and Dissertations (Arts)

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    "You don't get to sing a song when you have nothing to say" : Oliver Mtukudzi's music as a vehicle for socio-political commentary.
    (2004) Sibanda, Silindiwe
    This paper analyses the music of Oliver Mtukudzi in order to ascertain how he uses his music as a means of addressing the socio-political issues in Zimbabwe. Mtukudzi's music has, for decades now, been thought to reflect and voice the realities of life in Zimbabwe. Particular emphasis has been placed on the lyrics because they contain the messages of the songs. An evaluation of the music and its addressivity in conjunction with the lyrics is also examined to determine how Mtukudzi uses them both as ways of enhancing the message in the songs. Using the theory of addressivity the paper looks at the nature of this address within the songs chosen for evaluation within the paper. Similarly the virtual audience, as distinguishable from real audiences, of Mtukudzi' s address is taken cognisance of in order to, not only verify the addressivity already discussed, but also to assess how extensive the audience's influence is in determining the songs that the artist writes. Using songs from recordings from the last five years I look specifically at how he deals with themes about women, children, HIV/AIDS and politics in his music and how this is used to address and reflect the social realities of Zimbabwe.
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    "Bakwena Arts": a case study of arts and culture policy and implementation in the Limpopo Province
    (2009-10-13T12:08:16Z) Franks, Daniel Zachariah
    Abstract: In this research I examine the legacy of Arts and Culture Administration in the Limpopo Province, specifically with the intention of bringing to light the ways in which the evolution of this administrative structure has been largely framed by a history of domination by manifold colonial states. This fact of history has been shown to have given life to unique phenomena that are the seeming birth right of the new dispensation: corruption, inequality, apologism, blamelessness and rural contempt. The research makes special reference to the difficulties encountered by the emergent Northern Transvaal / Northern Province / Limpopo Province in establishing arts infrastructure and basic delivery. These difficulties are shown to be due to the former Transvaal’s policy of centralized cultural structures, and further compounded by the implications of the transformation of Pretoria’s State Theatre. This specific instance will inform an examination of the disparities between rural and urban realities in postcolony SA. My own practical work is discussed in relation to the above as far as it deals with the everyday production of culture, represented by the intrusion of global modern media into highly disparate social contexts.
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    Power, sexuality and subversion in Lutsango and Siswati traditional wedding songs
    (2009-07-06T10:11:32Z) Dlamini, Nonhlanhla
    I. ABSTRACT As a critical field, Anthropology aims to study humankind in all its diversity: past, present and future, physical, psychological, cultural and social, etc. Lienhardt (1967: 1) says, social anthropology “is connected with older and more familiar subjects, particularly with history and sociology, and cannot be neatly distinguished from them”. However, Anthropology has come a long way since the 19th century when the story of modern anthropology begun. During this period, the notion for human progress became the guiding light for anthropological thought. The early anthropological school of this thought contributed to the notion of racial superiority as one can notice that it was around this time that the theory of racial determinism was proposed to account for the differences among various cultures. The differences among people, according to this theory, were attributable mainly to their varying racial background e.g., the Hottentots were considered one-step above the apes. South Africa has a legacy of polarised racial communities that still affect Africa not much less than the other continents with which Africa may be identified. Many of the political, social and economic patterns, structures and attitudes of racism that characterised the apartheid era continue to shape many of the experiences of life in South Africa today. One cannot pretend that racial discrimination, racial prejudice, racial stereotypes, xenophobia and other forms of racism no longer characterise the South African society. Despite rapid progress in race relations and the introduction of positive nondiscrimination and equity legislation in political level, a more systematic programme is required to transform race relations in ordinary people.
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    "I will not speak" : the socio-political in the music of Albert Nyathi
    (2009-02-26T12:05:48Z) Moyo, Nomusa
    Abstract The thesis analyses the music of Albert Nyathi to ascertain how he uses the medium of music to engage with the socio- political issues in Zimbabwe. Using theories of popular culture and popular music, the paper examines how Nyathi uses music for the purpose of communicating his sentiments about the challenges facing the country. The songs to be analysed have been selected from the artists’ albums on a thematic basis. The analysis will focus on the message that the songs communicate and also on how the message is communicated. While emphasis has been placed on the lyrics as the main carriers of the message of the songs, the music will also be analysed to ascertain how it is used to enhance the message in the songs.
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    'African discourses' : the old and the new in post-apartheid isiZulu literature and South African black television dramas
    (2009-02-02T11:38:06Z) Mhlambi, Innocentia Jabulisile
    ABSTARCT This thesis sets out to explore the problematic perceptions regarding African indigenous language literature. The general view regarding this literature is that it is immature, irrelevant school-market driven and shows no artistic complexities and ingenuity.1 These disparaging remarks resonated persistently after the first democratic elections in 1994. Both local and international critics expected marked shifts in post-apartheid isiZulu literary productions because factors that hampered its development have been removed. The dominant Western and postcolonial critical approaches from which these critics articulated their views, operated on assumptions that failed to look at the role and centrality of the broader concerns usually covered by this literature. Barber (1994: 3) points out that these Western and postcolonial critical approaches, block a properly historical localized understanding of any scene of colonial and postindependence literary production in Africa. Instead it selects and overemphasized one sliver of literary and cultural production…and this is experience’. Furthermore it is the contention of this thesis that these critics used critical tools that are fundamentally mismatched for the types of narratives with which isiZulu literature and African-language literatures in general are engaged. It is the view of the author of this thesis that if a new set of critical tools are used, a paradigm shift may result which allows for revisiting creative conceptualisations involved in the production of these literatures. The primary aim of this thesis is to read post-apartheid isiZulu novels and the black television dramas using theoretical tenets postulated by Karin Barber. Barber’s research on African everyday culture is the key epistemological and cosmological framework with which to study post-apartheid literary and film productions that narrate the everyday life experiences of ordinary South Africans. The basic assumption is that orality which is the maximal point of reference for 1 See Mpahlele, 1992; Kunene, D. P. 1992 and 1994; Kunene, M. 1976 and 1991; and Chapman, 1996 any African work of imagination continues to thrive in black everyday popular culture as manifest in both print and broadcast media. The first part of this thesis deals with the use of oral genres in print media. Six novels are selected to explore the uses of proverbs, folktale motifs and naming as strategies for reading post-apartheid contemporary South African society. The thesis proceeds from an analysis of what these oral forms aim to achieve in the post-apartheid context. It is argued that through these oral verbal art forms the narratives transpose the traditional episteme and re-inscribe it for modern contemporary African society, where traditional morality is made to continue to shape and animate contemporary morality. The second section deals with the implications of some of these traditional epistemologies in broadcast media texts. Four post-apartheid black television dramas are selected. With Ifa LakwaMthethwa and Hlala Kwabafileyo, the thesis, demonstrates how these films position the middle-class as a solution to post-apartheid leadership challenges. The discussion of Gaz’ Lam and Yizo Yizo demonstrates the nature of orality, where oral texts are seen to be endlessly recycling similar themes in different media forms. The emphasis is on how renditions of texts always bring in new elements and topical issues, fresh and precise photographic capturing of key moments in society. In view of the nature of Barber’s theoretical model and that of isiZulu fiction and film, this thesis argues that it is the most appropriate to use for the analysis of Africanlanguages literatures. Barber’s theoretical model has intertextual links with the Black Film theoretical traditions in the Diaspora and the Third Cinema in Africa. These black film traditions, like Barber’s model, centralise the black experience, everyday culture and orality as the basic reference for African work of imagination and aesthetics.
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    "100 papers": an anthology of flash fiction and prose poetry with a theoretical postscript
    (2008-05-30T07:24:40Z) Jobson, Liesl Karen
    [NO ABSTRACT PRESENT]
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    "Troll": dissertation on sexual identity comprising three components
    (2008-03-07T09:20:14Z) Lotriet, Brett
    ABSTRACT This dissertation explores identity as its central theme. There are three components to the dissertation. The first is the academic essay which explores identity through the perspective of queer theory and proposes a three-dimensional conception of an “identity cloud”. The second component is the creative essay which consists of ten chapters towards a final novella entitled “troll”. The creative component’s central theme is the lead protagonist’s struggle in assimilating the identities of “gay” and “addict” after receiving a liver transplant. The third and final component is an essay detailing the manner in which the creative and academic created and informed one another.
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    Balancing act: An investigation of the in-between space used by selected contemporary artists in South Africa
    (2006-11-17T10:46:41Z) Watson, Deirdre
    After endless contemplation on the idea of ‘word and image’, the following expression of J.W.T Mitchell in Word and Image (1996: 56) brought insight: ‘[W]ord and image’… a pair of terms whose relations open a space of intellectual struggle, historical investigation, and artistic/critical practice. Our only choice is to explore this space (own emphasis). I shifted my position from the forlorn act of peeling to one of creative exploration. Not necessarily exploring the specific space between word and image, but rummaging ‘the space between’; always hovering amid opposites. This space provides an opportunity to confront and debate the many issues that stem from the relations formed in its fluidity. It is a space that informs my thinking. It is a space of conversation. I see not only my writing, but also the art that I scrutinize as conversation. My conversation is captured in the linear structure of this thesis, but the conversation of art is dynamic. It is informal and flexible – following not one path, offering no answer, giving the potential at each moment for surprises and transformation. The idea is to ponder contemporary art’s dialogue, the manipulators thereof and the indispensable factors constituting this notion: space, grammar, medium, criticism. The notion of dialogue assumes a listener, a participant, an audience. But who is this audience with whom ideas are conversed, and what language do you (presumably) use to communicate the necessary? I have chosen to investigate these questions, the purpose and plan of art, with relation to a selected group of artists: an individual, Terry Kurgan and a collective – Stephen Hobbs, Marcus Neustetter and Kathryn Smith, known as The Trinity Session.