The Library
Re-tracing invisible maps : landscape in and as performance in contemporary South Africa
Tools
Moyo, Awelani L. (2013) Re-tracing invisible maps : landscape in and as performance in contemporary South Africa. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
|
Text
WRAP_THESIS_Moyo_2013.pdf - Submitted Version Download (13Mb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2697195~S1
Abstract
This thesis suggests an approach to landscapes both in and as performance, in order to explore how identity and belonging are sited and performed in contemporary South Africa. I deploy an inter-disciplinary concept of landscape, drawing from the work of Tim
Ingold (2000), who defines landscape as 'a plenum' and argues that we engage with landscapes through a performative process of 'way-finding.' With this in mind, I position myself as a participant-observer in this thesis, and through a process of way-finding aim to
're-trace invisible maps' of identity in a selection of examples ranging from the theatrical to the everyday. Throughout my discussion I analyse how specific performances reflect/resist certain histories and social constructions of belonging. The thesis is divided into three thematic sections which explore how various cultural
practices, or forms of 'mapping', attempt to make the world 'knowable', at the same time indicating what escapes or exceeds the limits of their own codes of representation. The first section entitled Fortress City investigates identity formation as a spatially
situated process in Cape Town, using the example of the public arts festival Infecting the City and focusing on the period 2009-2011 when it was curated by Brett Bailey. In the second section Frontier Nations, I discuss the temporality of landscape by juxtaposing how collective/national memory and subjective/personal memory both emerge in and through
performance. I compare two speeches made by Presidents Mandela and Zuma in Grahamstown in 1996 and 2011 respectively, and contrast the political rhetoric on nationhood with Brett Bailey’s use of mythic time in an experiential site-specific performance Terminal (2009). In the last section Corporeal Networks, I argue that the body acts as primary generator of meaning, identification and belonging. I discuss Juanita Finestone-Praeg’s Inner Piece (2009) a physical theatre work which tackles issues of violence and representation.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater |
||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Performing arts -- South Africa, Landscapes in art, Performing arts -- Social aspects -- South Africa, South African drama, Belonging (Social psychology), Group identity in art | ||||
Official Date: | May 2013 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Hutchison, Yvette | ||||
Sponsors: | Leverhulme Trust (LT) | ||||
Description: | Theses includes supplementary DVD with hard copy version. |
||||
Extent: | 285 leaves : illustrations. | ||||
Language: | eng |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year