Papers by Nonhlanhla Dlamini
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment o... more A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements of degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, 2015
Safundi, 2020
ABSTRACT This essay works with the idea of absence and rejection of “failed” bodies/masculinities... more ABSTRACT This essay works with the idea of absence and rejection of “failed” bodies/masculinities within Xhosa traditions of creating men and manhood negotiation and Morell’s assertion that boys are culturally unable to choose masculinity scripts that please them. The essay thinks through these two ideas and discusses how Mgqolozana’s novel, A Man Who is Not a Man, sutures failed bodies into “traditional” Xhosa manhood creation and definitions. It consequently demonstrates that Xhosa young men are capable of carving traditions of manhood creation that are aligned with ulwaluko but not limited by traditionalism. The essay concludes that ten years after its first publication, the novel continues to provoke debate on the reconfiguration of Xhosa masculinity creation traditions through the use of a pseudo-autobiographical narrative voice, which simultaneously incorporates failed bodies into traditions of men-making and puts emphasis on care work as a cornerstone in the construction of the ulwaluko ritual.
Journal of Gender, Information and Development in Africa, 2018
Journal of Gender, Information and Development in Africa, 2018
vi My 'omnipotent' friend (Dudu), thank you for being a sound financial manager. Cozi, Mbusi, The... more vi My 'omnipotent' friend (Dudu), thank you for being a sound financial manager. Cozi, Mbusi, The [Faith], Sheppy, Dabengwa, my colleagues…Kimathi, Chiliboyi, Themba, Lungelo, Beth and Lindo thank you for being those brothers and sisters that I never had. Maina wa "Touch What you Don't Have", asante sana for keeping this baby growing from its conception stage to its birth. From you, I have learnt that 'to every birth its blood'. Jennifer, ntfombatane you will always be engraved in my heart and thoughts. Olivier, your contribution throughout the entire period of my study at Wits is not footnoted, but it is in the body of all the texts you printed. Mom, I cannot find the exact words and expressions with which to express my gratitude. Emphilweni kuba njalo nje-ke ntfombi yaka Ndlangamandla. Kulesinye sikhatsi indlela iyayenyukele, iphindze ibelukhetse. Silwe siphindze sidvubane. Lokumcoka kunakokonkhe kutsi sigcina sitenyukile letinsaba nemincwa sikanyekanye. I will forever be grateful to all the women whose voices and experiences are captured this research. vii
Journal of the African Literature Association, 2016
This paper argues that Sello Duiker's The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001) unsettles the standard ... more This paper argues that Sello Duiker's The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001) unsettles the standard binarist discourses and tropes around creative and scholarly treatments of hetero/ homosexualities. The novel does this by offering different ways of thinking about masculinities, the relationships they have with each other, and the social status they enjoy. Duiker's literary representation of homosexual masculinities problematizes Morrell and Connell's theorizations of masculinity. Instead of thinking about black homosexuality as a masculine and gendered identity which stands in opposition to heterosexuality as Morrell does (1998), the novel blurs the heterosexual/homosexual and man/woman gender and sex dichotomies. It depicts that the above identities are as neither distinct nor oppositional, rather their relationships are marked by grey areas: they intersect, overlap, and are relational to each other. This paper examines how The Quiet Violence of Dreams represents itself as a text that speaks back to the acclaimed absence of black homosexuality depicted in earlier South African literary texts published during apartheid era. It further examines the manner in which the novel uses literary devices and modes of narration such as mythopoeia, madness, and African spirituality to reimagine homosexuality in the contemporary South African social sphere. Some of the interesting questions that this work probes are as follows: what is the importance of the linkages and discontinuities between the past and the present, and the "sacred" and the "profane," in the negotiation of a space of "legitimacy" for the homosexual in the contemporary era? What strategies does Duiker employ to question and destabilize gender and sexual identity paradigms into which subjects are hailed into? South African literary texts published during the "transitional" post-apartheid era, engage with the traumatic effects of different types of inequalities inherited from the apartheid past. Contemporary scholarship shows that apartheid permeated the public and private spheres of life including quotidian experiences. For example, it impinged on the type of love, objects of sexual desire, and bodies to be desired. In addition, it puts emphasis on controlling the manner in which men and women experienced and performed gender resulting in the socioeconomic and gender inequities witnessed in the contemporary era. The privileging of heterosexuality manifests in hate crimes such as homophobia, "corrective" rape of "homosexual" men and women, and the murder of men and women who self-identify as "lesbians" and "gays." These are a few, but sombre examples of gender inequality that "post-apartheid" South Africa contends with. The country has achieved CONTACT Nonhlanhla Dlamini
Performances of domesticity by cis-gendered masculinities and femininities within the national an... more Performances of domesticity by cis-gendered masculinities and femininities within the national and transnational spaces continue to buttress notions of queer absence through denial and violent effacing of queer men and women from these spaces. As a result, literary depictions of queer love, pleasure and desire have had to contend with the difficulty of normalising, writing and suturing queer pleasures on the trans/national spaces. This paper comparatively examines Zukiswa Wanner (2010) and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's (2009) strategies of reinserting and depicting same-sex love and desire within the home and the trans/national spaces. It suggests that suturing queerness to the trans/national cultures and literary depictions of queer love, desire, self-stylisation and performances require a remodelling of the nuclear family, which seeks to conscript queerness into patriarchal form(s) of polyandry.
This paper argues that Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001) unsettles the standard ... more This paper argues that Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001) unsettles the standard binarist discourses and tropes around creative and scholarly treatments of hetero/homosexualities. The novel does this by offering different ways of thinking about masculinities, the relationships they have with each other, and the social status they enjoy. Duiker’s literary representation of homosexual masculinities problematizes Morrell and Connell’s theorizations of masculinity. Instead of thinking about black homosexuality as a masculine and gendered identity which stands in opposition to heterosexuality as Morrell does (1998), the novel blurs the heterosexual/homosexual and man/woman gender and sex dichotomies. It depicts that the above identities are as neither distinct nor oppositional, rather their relationships are marked by grey areas: they intersect, overlap, and are relational to each other. This paper examines how The Quiet Violence of Dreams represents itself as a text that speaks back to the acclaimed absence of black homosexuality depicted in earlier South African literary texts published during apartheid era. It further examines the manner in which the novel uses literary devices and modes of narration such as mythopoeia, madness, and African spirituality to reimagine homosexuality in the contemporary South African social sphere. Some of the interesting questions that this work probes are as follows: what is the importance of the linkages and discontinuities between the past and the present, and the “sacred” and the “profane,” in the negotiation of a space of “legitimacy” for the homosexual in the contemporary era? What strategies does Duiker employ to question and destabilize gender and sexual identity paradigms into which subjects are hailed into?
Muziki, 2009
This paper examines how Swazi women use folk songs to depict gendered power relations as they exi... more This paper examines how Swazi women use folk songs to depict gendered power relations as they exist in the Swazi society. It goes further to show how the women sing/talk about female sexuality in ways that undercut male-authored discourses about female sexuality, as well as how they subvert and question patriarchal discourses and practices that work to the detriment of women. This is achieved through the reading of a selected body of women's songs performed during Swazi traditional marriage rites such as umtsimba 1, kumekeza 2 and in various social and communal gatherings. This paper reads the songs as social texts and argues that the song is a political space in which women (re)write the self in ways that oppose patriarchal discourses on female sexuality and a space where power is negotiated. Finally, the paper concludes that the song is a contested, effective and a political space, which women can use to articulate their views
Thesis Chapter and published paper by Nonhlanhla Dlamini
Gender & Behaviour, 2018
Zukiswa Wanner’s The Madams (2006) and Behind Every Successful Man (2008) grapple with the contra... more Zukiswa Wanner’s The Madams (2006) and Behind Every Successful Man (2008) grapple with the contradictory mess and incompleteness of black middleclass masculine and feminine subjectivities within the ‘post-apartheid’ South African nuclear family. These seemingly polarised positions are constructed and steeped within the unstable modern nuclear family and neo-traditional values. This articles’ discussion of the novels is foregrounded on the domestic as a site and an ideology that manufactures, shapes and regiments sexuality and subjectivity construction and gender performances in both males and females. It suggests that the relationship between class, consumerism and pseudo-African values play a significant role in the back and forth transformation of black masculinities and femininities.
ABSTRACT
This paper argues that Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001) unsettles the ... more ABSTRACT
This paper argues that Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001) unsettles the standard binarist discourses and tropes around creative and scholarly treatments of hetero/ homosexualities. The novel does this by offering different ways of thinking about masculinities, the relationships they have with each other, and the social status they enjoy.
Duiker’s literary representation of homosexual masculinities problematizes Morrell and Connell’s theorizations of masculinity. Instead of thinking about black homosexuality as a masculine and gendered identity which stands in opposition to heterosexuality as Morrell does (1998), the novel blurs the heterosexual/homosexual and man/woman gender and sex dichotomies. It depicts that the above identities are as neither distinct nor oppositional, rather their relationships are marked by grey areas: they intersect, overlap, and are relational to each other. This paper examines how The Quiet Violence of Dreams represents itself as a text that speaks back to the acclaimed absence of black homosexuality depicted in earlier South African literary texts published during apartheid era. It further examines the manner in which the novel uses literary devices and modes of narration such as mythopoeia, madness, and African spirituality to reimagine homosexuality in the contemporary South African social sphere. Some of the interesting questions that this work probes are as follows: what is the importance of the linkages and discontinuities between the past and the present, and the “sacred” and the “profane,” in the negotiation of a space of “legitimacy” for the homosexual in the contemporary era? What strategies does Duiker employ to question and destabilize gender and sexual identity paradigms into which subjects are hailed into?
Thesis Chapters by Nonhlanhla Dlamini
Thando Mgqolozana's A Man Who Is Not a Man was first published in June 2009. The launch of the bo... more Thando Mgqolozana's A Man Who Is Not a Man was first published in June 2009. The launch of the book coincided with the annual Xhosa circumcision season. Both the timing of its launch and the thematic concerns of the novel destabilised the culture of secrecy that shrouds the Xhosa rite of passage into adult masculinity. Mgqolozana's novel addresses the subordination and stigmatisation of initiates whose circumcisions fail. Of the " collective silence " that shrouds the horrors of Xhosa circumcision, Mqgqolozana has said the following: " It is this disquieting reality that has prompted me to break the silence and talk about the cultural practice that I have experienced first-hand. And for this reason alone, I feel like I have more than earned the right to break the silence, and start a debate of reconstruction, or perhaps, if need be, total deconstruction of that which kills " (cited in Zvomuya 2009). The situatedness of the novel between shame, silence and speech rendered it a path-breaking novel at the time of publication. As a novelist, Mgqolozana dared to voice and make public a personal conviction, " even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood " , to quote Audre Lorde (2007: 40). The novel not only opened up a dialogue about the various taboos surrounding ulwaluko [1], subverting several of the codes attached to the initiation ceremony; it also
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Papers by Nonhlanhla Dlamini
Thesis Chapter and published paper by Nonhlanhla Dlamini
This paper argues that Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001) unsettles the standard binarist discourses and tropes around creative and scholarly treatments of hetero/ homosexualities. The novel does this by offering different ways of thinking about masculinities, the relationships they have with each other, and the social status they enjoy.
Duiker’s literary representation of homosexual masculinities problematizes Morrell and Connell’s theorizations of masculinity. Instead of thinking about black homosexuality as a masculine and gendered identity which stands in opposition to heterosexuality as Morrell does (1998), the novel blurs the heterosexual/homosexual and man/woman gender and sex dichotomies. It depicts that the above identities are as neither distinct nor oppositional, rather their relationships are marked by grey areas: they intersect, overlap, and are relational to each other. This paper examines how The Quiet Violence of Dreams represents itself as a text that speaks back to the acclaimed absence of black homosexuality depicted in earlier South African literary texts published during apartheid era. It further examines the manner in which the novel uses literary devices and modes of narration such as mythopoeia, madness, and African spirituality to reimagine homosexuality in the contemporary South African social sphere. Some of the interesting questions that this work probes are as follows: what is the importance of the linkages and discontinuities between the past and the present, and the “sacred” and the “profane,” in the negotiation of a space of “legitimacy” for the homosexual in the contemporary era? What strategies does Duiker employ to question and destabilize gender and sexual identity paradigms into which subjects are hailed into?
Thesis Chapters by Nonhlanhla Dlamini
This paper argues that Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001) unsettles the standard binarist discourses and tropes around creative and scholarly treatments of hetero/ homosexualities. The novel does this by offering different ways of thinking about masculinities, the relationships they have with each other, and the social status they enjoy.
Duiker’s literary representation of homosexual masculinities problematizes Morrell and Connell’s theorizations of masculinity. Instead of thinking about black homosexuality as a masculine and gendered identity which stands in opposition to heterosexuality as Morrell does (1998), the novel blurs the heterosexual/homosexual and man/woman gender and sex dichotomies. It depicts that the above identities are as neither distinct nor oppositional, rather their relationships are marked by grey areas: they intersect, overlap, and are relational to each other. This paper examines how The Quiet Violence of Dreams represents itself as a text that speaks back to the acclaimed absence of black homosexuality depicted in earlier South African literary texts published during apartheid era. It further examines the manner in which the novel uses literary devices and modes of narration such as mythopoeia, madness, and African spirituality to reimagine homosexuality in the contemporary South African social sphere. Some of the interesting questions that this work probes are as follows: what is the importance of the linkages and discontinuities between the past and the present, and the “sacred” and the “profane,” in the negotiation of a space of “legitimacy” for the homosexual in the contemporary era? What strategies does Duiker employ to question and destabilize gender and sexual identity paradigms into which subjects are hailed into?