{"id":12968,"date":"2011-03-30T01:59:49","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T01:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=12968"},"modified":"2012-03-24T18:52:33","modified_gmt":"2012-03-24T18:52:33","slug":"negotiating-coloured-identity-through-encounters-with-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=12968","title":{"rendered":"Negotiating Coloured Identity Through Encounters with Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/etd.uwc.ac.za\/usrfiles\/modules\/etd\/docs\/etd_init_1614_1173679793.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Negotiating Coloured Identity Through Encounters with Performance<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>University of the Western Cape<br \/>\nNovember 2005<br \/>\n148 Pages<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gino Fransman<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MA in the Faculty of Arts University of the Western Cape<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In this study theatre, as staged performance and as text, will be used as an exploratory and discursive tool to examine the negotiation of Coloured identity in the \u2018New South Africa\u2019. I investigate debates on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=9281\" target=\"_blank\">Coloured<\/a> identity while also drawing on theories of the performativity of identity. The role of performance in negotiating this identity is foregrounded; this provides a context for a case study which evaluates responses by Coloured and Black students at the University of the Western Cape to popular Coloured identity-related performances. These include Marc Lottering\u2019s \u2018Crash\u2019 and \u2018From the Cape Flats With Love\u2019, and Petersen, Isaacs and Reisenhoffer\u2019s \u2018Joe Barber\u2019 and \u2018Suip\u2019. These works, both as texts and as performance, will be used to analyse the way stereotypical representations of Coloured identities are played with, subverted or negotiated in performance. I attempt to establish how group stereotypes are constructed within the performance arena, and question whether attitudes can be negotiated through encounters with performance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Chapter One<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Setting the Scene<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Staging, de-staging and re-staging the Coloured:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Chapter Two<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Staging the Coloured\u2013\u2013An Inter-disciplinary Approach<\/li>\n<li>Comedy and Reflexivity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chapter Three<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>De-staging the Coloured<\/li>\n<li>The Theatre in Action: Using Stereotype<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chapter Four<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Framing the Performances<\/li>\n<li>The Performances as Texts<\/li>\n<li>\u2018Joe Barber\u2019 \u2013 The Script<\/li>\n<li>\u2018Suip\u2019 \u2013 The Script<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chapter Five<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Performances: Re-staging the Coloured<\/li>\n<li>Conveying Meaning and Method<\/li>\n<li>\u2018From the Cape Flats With Love\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chapter Six<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Case-Study: Methodology and Discussion<\/li>\n<li>The Sample<\/li>\n<li>Ethics Statement<\/li>\n<li>The Participants as Spectators\/Audience<\/li>\n<li>Audiences and Venues<\/li>\n<li>Special Features of the Performances Useful for the Investigation<\/li>\n<li>Methods of Data Collection<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chapter Seven<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Conclusions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bibliography<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Appendix A:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Images<\/li>\n<li>Marc Lottering \u2018From the Cape Flats With Love\u2019<\/li>\n<li>\u2018Crash\u2019 Promotional Material<\/li>\n<li>\u2018Joe Barber\u2019<\/li>\n<li>\u2018Suip\u2019 Promotional Material<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Appendix B:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Sample Questionnaire<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Where is the theatre now located in the \u2018New South Africa\u2019? To what extent has the focus shifted to \u201cthe representation of present struggle\u201d (Orkin, 1996:61), rather than the struggle for a democracy enshrined within a constitution? How does this contribute to establishing an emergent national identity, and simultaneously affect specific group identities? These questions are key to the discussions that follow, as the national identity encompasses different groups assembled under one banner: the \u2018New South Africa\u2019. These groups, in turn, are all subject to group negotiations of identity.<\/p>\n<p>In the study that follows, theatre as staged performance and as text will be used as exploratory and discursive tools to investigate the negotiation of identities. The aim is to explore this theme by examining the responses to four popular Coloured identity-related staged performances; Marc Lottering\u2019s \u2018Crash\u2019 (2004) and \u2018From the Cape Flats with Love\u2019 (2001), as well as Petersen, Isaacs and Reisenhoffer\u2019s \u2018Joe Barber\u2019 (1999) and \u2018Suip\u2019 (1996). These works, both as performance and as text, will be used to investigate the way stereotypical representations of Coloured identities are played with, subverted or negotiated in performance. In this work I attempt to establish how meanings are constructed within the performance arena. I also examine how they have been negotiated by using the responses of a selected group of students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), as a case study, in order to explore current student attitudes.<\/p>\n<p>The primary focus of the thesis examines Coloured identity as a construction still represented as a stereotype at times, but also as fluidly reflecting the changing South African society. The readings of the performances, as well as the performances as texts, illustrate occasions where this fluidity, or lack of fluidity in stereotypical instances, is represented on the stage. On the other hand the case study provides a student audience response to representations of Coloured people on the stage in South Africa. The slippages between being a cultural insider and investigating that very culture often manifest themselves, within the scope of this work and beyond its constraints. It is the difficulty of maintaining the theoretical trend that Coloured identity is fluid, which makes identifying these manifestations in the performances and case study so fascinating. The thesis explores this tension as far as possible within a limited scope for detail&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8230;Chapter One: <\/strong>Setting the Scene<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u2018Coloureds don\u2019t feel included in mainstream South African society\u2019\u2026 this sense of exclusion could in some ways explain why they had \u2018no real stake in obeying the rules of this society\u2019. (Ted Leggett, Institute of Security Studies- South Africa: 2004)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I am a Coloured. At least that is what I call myself. In South Africa today, ten years after democracy, it is surprising that this statement requires qualification. No qualification, in our democratic country, is required for someone stating, \u201cI am Black,\u201d or \u201cI am White.\u201d Yet, Coloured identity is mired in questions of, amongst others, belonging, status, and power. The contradictions implicit in claiming a Coloured identity are explored here, as my own claiming of the term places me in opposition to \u2018being named\u2019. To myself, it means one thing, but to someone else, it could carry an entirely different meaning when it is ascribed to me, and thus imposes a way of being onto the term Coloured.<\/p>\n<p>Richard van der Ross, one of the former rectors of UWC (which was established in 1960 as a Coloured or \u2018Bush\u2019 College), states that at first, those now called Coloured were simply referred to as \u201cfrom the Cape\u201d. He says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In time, however, through education and general development, the group has become aware of its situation and oppression, and has sought to shake off its feelings and position of inferiority\u2026 They base their claims on the long line of descent taking them back, in some cases, to the original inhabitants of the land of their birth\u2026 the new group which has emerged has been known by many names. (2005:94)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u00a0In the 1600s, slaves of mixed parentage had already been afforded more privilege than Black slaves. Following this rationale, boys born of mixed slave parents were preferred over the descendants of Black slaves, as \u201cthe masters thought they learned rapidly\u201d (2005:35). Following a progression of ascribed names, Robert Shell (quoted in Van der Ross) says the identification of the group occurred \u201cafter the abolition of the slave trade (1808) [when] the convenient name coloured was introduced into the South African vocabulary, where it stubbornly persists\u201d (2005:98).<\/p>\n<p>Van der Ross outlines an intricate web of inter-group mixing, from slaves, colonists, locals, exiles and freed slaves. That these groups are all represented in his framework does not indicate that inter-mixing necessarily occurred amongst all of these groups in a single family line. For the purposes of this study, the combinations of these do \u201cnot mean that all the components are to be found in any individual [C]oloured person. There may be no more than two\u201d (2005:98).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Read the entire thesis <a href=\"http:\/\/etd.uwc.ac.za\/usrfiles\/modules\/etd\/docs\/etd_init_1614_1173679793.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Negotiating Coloured Identity Through Encounters with Performance University of the Western Cape November 2005 148 Pages Gino Fransman A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MA in the Faculty of Arts University of the Western Cape In this study theatre, as staged performance and as text, will be used as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1295,838,1196,520],"tags":[5824,5826,5827,20756,5825],"class_list":["post-12968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-dissertations","category-literary-criticism","category-south-africa","tag-gino-fransman","tag-marc-lottering","tag-oscar-petersen","tag-south-africa","tag-university-of-the-western-cape"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}