"Popular Culture in South Africa: The Limits of Black Identity in ""Drum"" Magazine"
In my reflection, I consider how commoditized cultural images from a black diaspora extend the imaginative capacity of black South Africans to construct new identities. I argue that a black identity connects to a black diasporic identity and to an abstract modern identity. It finds its cultural recognition in a systemic frame that is wider than South Africa. And within this system, the black identity affirms a cultural closeness of meaning between black and white. In the popular imagination, images of style, that contrast sharply with black material conditions, register an undeniable claim to equal cultural value with other modern cultural identities.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign