Pitied plumage and dying birds : the public mourning of national heroines and post-apartheid foundational mythology construction

Kerseboom, Simone

Title: Pitied plumage and dying birds : the public mourning of national heroines and post-apartheid foundational mythology construction
Creator: Kerseboom, Simone
Subject: Women heroes -- South Africa
Subject: Nationalism -- South Africa
Subject: Nationalism and collective memory -- South Africa
Subject: Post-apartheid era -- South Africa
Subject: Women political activists -- South Africa
Subject: Dead -- Political aspects -- South Africa
Subject: Critical discourse analysis
Date Issued: 2015
Date: 2015
Type: Thesis
Type: Doctoral
Type: PhD
Identifier: vital:2625
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019884
Description: The original contribution of this thesis is the examination of the official construction of a post-apartheid foundation myth through the analysis of the dead body politics of five iconic South African women that spans the three presidencies that have defined South Africa’s democratic era. This thesis examines the death and funeral of Albertina Sisulu, the return and burial of Sara Baartman, and the commemoration of Charlotte Maxeke, Lilian Ngoyi, and Helen Joseph. Sisulu, Baartman, Maxeke, Ngoyi, and Joseph have been constructed as heroines and as foundational figures for the post-apartheid nation in official rhetoric. It will contend that the dead body politics of these women not only informs a new foundational mythology, but also features in the processes of regime legitimation when the ANC-dominated government faces strong societal criticism. Although such official expressions of nationalism may appear exhausted, this thesis will show that nationalism remains a powerful and dangerous force in South Africa that attempts to silence opposition and critical analysis of perceived failing government policies or inaction. This thesis will indicate that as women’s bodies and legacies are appropriated for nationalist projects they are subsumed in discourses of domestic femininity in official rhetoric that dangerously detract from women’s democratic rights and their ability to exercise responsible and productive citizenship in the post-apartheid state. It will argue that women’s historic political activism is contained within the meta-narrative of ‘The Struggle’ and that women are re-subsumed into the patriarchal discourses of the past that are inherited in the present. This thesis approaches this topic by considering a top-to-bottom construction of post-apartheid nationalism through applying feminist critical discourse analysis to official rhetoric articulated at the public mourning and commemorative rituals of these five women.
Format: 352 leaves
Format: pdf
Publisher: Rhodes University
Publisher: Faculty of Humanities, History
Language: English
Rights: Kerseboom, Simone

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