The dual world metaphor and the 'struggle' in selected South African and African films (1948 to 1996)

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The terminology used in segregationist discourse that South Africa is a combinationof 'first world' and 'third world' elements has been appropriated from an internationaldiscourse about problems of world-wide socio-economic development. The terms areused to describe the sophisticated metropolitan areas inhabited by highly developedwhites and simple, backward, isolated, rural regions occupied by undeveloped orunderdeveloped blacks. However, in South Africa this dual world metaphor, whichhas socio-political implications that have brought great misfortune to blacks, wasinstitutionalised by apartheid, with the consequences that blacks have expressed theirresistance in what became known as the 'struggle' against the dualist system.Selected South African and African films whose themes have a bearing on such asocio-economic system are explored in this thesis. A supplementary exploration offilms dealing with the theme of the 'struggle', which has become a metaphor for the'generations of resistance', has been undertaken by means ofa detailed analysis.The interpretation of 'development' in this thesis finds a link betweeen the dualistparadigm, the perpetuation of poverty and the migratory labour system. The peculiarrelationship which the 'struggle' has had with the cultures of black people, in whichthere is a mutual influence between the 'struggle' and the nature of these cultures, isexplored in the relevant films.However, this thesis offers no solutions, but exposes a VICIOUS system which ISthreatening to gain world ascendency.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University