"Popular Culture in South Africa: The Limits of Black Identity in ""Drum"" Magazine"
type: CreativeWork
description: 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.
abstract: 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.
author: David, Stephen Morris
language: eng
keywords: Black Studies
date published: 2015-09-25T20:15:54Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:26:16Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/81520