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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:How to honour a woman: gendered memorialisation in post-apartheid South Africa
Author:Marschall, SabineISNI
Year:2010
Periodical:Critical Arts: A Journal of Media Studies (ISSN 0256-0046)
Volume:24
Issue:2
Pages:260-283
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:monuments
women
gender roles
stereotypes
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02560041003786524
Abstract:This article discusses a number of monuments, memorials and statues installed in public places in South Africa since 1994 - and especially since 2006 - in memory of extraordinary women. After 1994, the democratically elected postapartheid government began to redress the biased landscape of memory inherited from the previous order, by establishing a host of new memorials commemorating new heroes and previously neglected perspectives on the past. Despite the government's professed commitment to gender equality, virtually no such statues or memorials were erected in honour of women. Among the few exceptions to be discussed in the article is the Gugu Dlamini memorial in Durban. Since 2006, a private-sector initiative, the Sunday Times Heritage Project, has resulted in the creation of seven public memorials in honour of women, which are examined in terms of gender stereotypes and their positioning towards the conventionalism of the historically male-dominated public monument genre. The article argues that artists involved in this task are faced with a unique conundrum. Some attempt to articulate gender-specific 'difference' and reject formulae associated with patriarchal commemorative practices, but they unintentionally tend to reinforce entrenched notions of traditional gender roles and contribute to the entrenchment of questionable ideas about what constitutes a fitting tribute to a woman. Other artists pursue a 'gender-blind' approach, while still trying to break with the conventions of the monument genre, but as a result sometimes struggle to communicate notions of dignity and grandeur, which are often precisely contingent on such conventions. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]
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