Identities at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality and class in a liberalising, democratising South Africa : the reconstitution of 'the Afrikaner woman'

This dissertation explores the extent to which the post-apartheid democratic space in South Africa has allowed for the emergence of new identities for Afrikaans women beyond the normative Afrikaner nationalist volksmoeder [mother of the nation] ideal. The study interrogates Afrikaner subjectivities through the interpretive lens of ordentlikheid - an ethnicised respectability - at the intersections of gender, sexuality, class and race. Framed by the theoretical perspectives of Laclau and Mouffe, Foucault, and Butler, the study employs discourse analysis across three phases: Firstly, an analysis of Sarie women's magazine, as an instrument of a culturally-sanctioned, normative discourse; secondly, an analysis of texts generated in focus group interviews with subjects who self-identify as women, white, heterosexual, middle-class and Afrikaans-speaking; and thirdly, an analysis of texts from individual in-depth interviews.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Sociology

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Van der Westhuizen, Christi

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Steyn, Melissa

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12302

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12302