3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Representations of the postcolonial city through the eyes of the African artist as Flâneur(2015-02-16) Matheolane, Mpho MosesThis research report considers the question and concept of the flâneur as an artist and a means of representing the city. In doing this, the figure of the flâneur is removed from its European and Western urban context and placed within an African one. This figure is also imagined as an African black artist as opposed to its popularly and historically known white poet and artist, of Baudelaire’s creation. In this way, the flâneur as an African artist, in an African city, may be used to ask and possibly answer the question of what this all entails for the representation of such a city, are there any differences between this flâneur and its Western archetype? Factoring in the significance of postcolonial theory and its application to space, more especially the city, what nuances and perspectives may be drawn from this? For purposes of the above; the city of Johannesburg is used as the spatial subject matter, the early series of work by the artist Kudzanai Chiurai being an example of the aforementioned representation of the city while the artist himself is seen as the flâneur with the rationale behind his work being the practice of the flâneur that is, flânerie. Keywords: Postcolonialism, postcolonial urbanism, flâneur, flânerie, Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, Johannesburg, post-apartheid, Achille Mbembe, Kudzanai Chiurai.Item Narrating post-colonial crisis: the post-colonial state and the individual in the works of Sony Labou Tansi(2014-03-28) Mashihi, ThapeloIn this study I will examine two texts by the Congolese author Sony Labou Tansi, namely The Seven Solitudes of Lorsa Lopez and Parenthesis of Blood. The aim of the research is to examine how and why the author uses techniques of allegory and magic realism instead of realism in his work. By closely examining the two texts and with the help of comparisons with his other works, I intend to show that the world he is representing is too fabulous to be rendered in a realistic manner. The use of allegory and irony in the text is a strategy that helps the author to challenge the oppression and despair in his society. The issue of gender is also important in both texts, therefore, I will examine how Labou Tansi portrays women in his works. I will do this by comparing his presentation of women to other female characters found in African canonical works by male writers.Item Nation building and globalisation in the visual arts: A case study of art projects of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council (GJMC)(2008-05-19T10:32:38Z) Duncan, JaneThis thesis explores the tensions between nation building and globalisation in relation to state-sponsored visual arts projects, focusing on the Biennale project of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council (GJMC). It explores the extent to which this project - aimed initially at internationalising and then globalising South Africa’s art world following the demise of apartheid in 1994 - was compatible with key nation building objectives for state funding of the arts, captured imperfectly in the country’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). It is found that the Biennale project was largely not compatible with the RDP’s objectives for state funding, namely to promote national unity while respecting the country’s cultural diversity, redress imbalances of the past in access to the arts, and promote culture as a component of South Africa’s development, in spite of the GJMC’s statements to the contrary. Rather the Johannesburg Biennale reproduced the dialectic of economic inclusion and exclusion endemic to the political project of globalisation, leading to the creation of economic and artistic ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ akin to the ‘First World’ and ‘Third World’ divide that the RDP warned against in its principle on nation-building, and proved to be an inappropriate use of state resources given the divided nature of the South African artworld. Furthermore, the GJMC imported uncritically an exhibition form associated with the discourse of internationalisation in the first Biennale, and then globalisation in the second, from other Biennales, based on contestable theoretical positions on nationalism and globalisation. This they did in an attempt to address a growing financial crisis in the city by using a ‘one size fit all’ set of policy prescriptions falling under the rubric of neo-liberalism, including culture-led methods of enhancing a city’s global status to attract foreign revenue. In particular, the Biennale did not learn the lesson that the shift in focus in other Biennales from internationalisation to globalisation, was also accompanied by growing discontent in these countries about the elitist nature of these events. I also consider whether it is possible to devise an alternative Biennale project that uses international contact to unite the South African artworld, rather than dividing it.