Constructing Race: Youth, Identity, and Popular Culture in South Africa

2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 709
Author(s):  
Rhonda E. Dugan ◽  
Nadine E. Dolby
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Youth Identity

Film as /and Popular Social Text: The Reception of John Trengove’s Inxeba/The Wound and Wanuri Kahui’s Rafiki

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-79
Author(s):  
Gibson Ncube
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Global North ◽  
State Responses

This article is interested in popular and institutional or state responses to the representations of queerness offered in the films Inxeba/The Wound (South Africa, 2017) and Rafiki (Kenya, 2018). Aside from portraying the marked homophobia that continues to circulate on the African continent, the institutional and state responses to the films have overshadowed the positive popular reception which has  characterised conversations around the films on social media and public spaces. This article shows how social media functions as animportant space of contestation for diverse issues relating to non-normative gender and sexual identities. As these films circulate in different spaces and are viewed by diverse audiences, they elicit equally diverse reactions and responses. The article examines how viewers, in Africa and beyond, receive and engage with the queerness represented in the two films. It argues that the multifaceted reactions to Inxeba/The Wound and Rafiki are central to articulating important questions about what it means to be queer in Africa,and particularly what it implies for black queers to inhabit heteronormative and patriarchal spaces on the continent. Through an analysis of the reactions and receptions of the two films in Africa and the global North, it is argued that it is possible to trace important inter-regional, intra-continental and intercontinental dialogues and conversations regarding the representation of queer African subjectivities. The intra-continental and inter-continental dialogues bring to light questions of gaze and viewing that are inherent in the circulation of queer-themed films. Kewords: Inxeba/The Wound, Rafiki, reception, popular culture, queerness

Apocalypticism and Popular Culture in South Africa: An Overview and Update

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 219-236
Author(s):  
Margaret Mollett
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
South African ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
South African Context ◽  
Media Technology ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
African Context ◽  
Pentecostal Churches

Abstract Apocalypticism, in the form of premillennial dispensationalism, based on foundational texts in Daniel, 2 Thessalonians and the book of Revelation, took root in South Africa through missionaries from the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. At first associated with Pentecostal churches and splinter groups from traditional churches belief in an imminent rapture followed by the tribulation, the millennium and final white throne judgment characterise an ever-widening circle of so-called charismatic groups. This heightening of expectation can mainly be ascribed to the influence of Hal Lindsey during the 70s and 80s and Tim LaHaye during the first decade of the 21st century. Rapid growth in media technology and the popularity of religious fiction has resulted in a merging of apocalyptic expectation with popular culture. This article probes the nature of “popular culture” and its relation to religion in South African context, and indicates a route for further enquiry and research. It concludes with the question, “What obligation does this lay on the scholarly guild?”

“These Latin Girls Mean Business”1: Expanding the Boundaries of Latina Youth Identity in Meg Medina’s YA Novel Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

2020 ◽  
pp. 116-129
Author(s):  
Cristina Herrera
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Urban Girls ◽  
Girls Of Color ◽  
Youth Identity ◽  
Latina Identity

This chapter examines the ways in which Latina urban identities have been shaped by popular culture as the “chola/homegirl.” However, this chapter argues that Medina’s novel challenges the seemingly natural alignment of urban Latina identity with the chola by calling for a more expansive view of what it means to be a young, urban Latina. This chapter uses Chicana/Latina feminist theorizing that has examined the chola identity, in addition to sociological research that has studied the ways in which urban girls of color are constructed as “bad” or “delinquent.” This chapter examines the protagonist in light of these theories. Further, the chapter argues that Medina’s novel, in expanding what it means to be a young, urban Latina, questions the ways in which those Latinas who do not model themselves as cholas are victims of identity-policing, rendered not “really” Latina, and dismissed as weirdos or outsiders within this narrow gender/racial identity script that defines chola identity as the only “authentic” young, urban, Latina identity.

Literature and popular culture in South Africa

1987 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 657-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Kirkwood
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Popular Culture

Transforming reality

1988 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 17-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Freire ◽  
Vivian Schelling
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Adult Literacy ◽  
Paulo Freire ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Political Awareness ◽  
Educational Method ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right

One of the key figures in the Popular Culture Movement, Paulo Freire is the founder of a revolutionary educational method which brought literacy — and political awareness — to thousands of the poor in Brazil. His books, which have played a key role in adult literacy movements throughout the world, have been banned by many dictatorial governments, including those of South Africa and, most recently, Haiti. Forced into exile from his own country following the right-wing coup in 1964, Freire finally returned in 1980. In São Paulo he talked to Vivian Schelling about his work

scholarly journals Locality in Makoto Shinkai’s Kimi no Na wa: Negotiating Japanese Youth Identity

IZUMI ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-31
Author(s):  
Muammar Kadafi ◽  
Shofi Mahmudah Budi Utami
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
High Culture ◽  
Local Content ◽  
Youth Identity ◽  
Problematic Relationship ◽  
Japanese Identity ◽  
Japanese Youth

Japan becomes one of the countries that has been producing worldwide popular culture, namely through anime. Besides its popularity which attracts wider audiences, anime cultivates cultural content as it is also found in popular anime entitled “Kimi no Na wa”. Aside from its popular culture, Japan has undoubtedly been known for its ‘high culture’ products such as haiku or Zen, to which Japanese identity is attached. Then, the content of Japanese locality performed in the anime highlights some crucial issues related to Japanese identity, including the problematic relationship between traditionality and modernity, generations, and genders. Thus, the local content in the anime is interesting to scrutinize how traditional values are depicted and negotiated concerning Japanese identity. Since this study is descriptive-qualitative research, it answers the problem by describing the phenomenon and employing the interpretative method by Hall’s concept of identity. The selected data related to locality and identity obtained from the movie and poster are grouped and approached by Hall’s semiotic representation to see the relation to its significations. Finally, this brings out the interpretation of the data indicating that the anime portrays the ‘return’ to local culture. It is referred to as ‘nihonjinron’, which is particularly emphasized in youth life. Through this film, the identity is negotiated. The characters (Taki and Mitsuha) perform post-modern subjects; a case in point accepts the changes as they develop their identity in the current era.

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