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Gender, community and identity : women and Afrikaner nationalism in the Volksmoeder discourse of Die Boerevrou (1919-1931)
Includes bibliographies.
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| Main Author: | |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Political Studies
2016
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| _version_ | 1867613698708733952 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Kruger, Lou-Marie |
| author2 | Du Toit, André |
| author_browse | Du Toit, André Kruger, Lou-Marie |
| author_facet | Du Toit, André Kruger, Lou-Marie |
| author_sort | Kruger, Lou-Marie |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes bibliographies. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/17313 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:40:17.427Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publishDateRange | 2016 |
| publishDateSort | 2016 |
| publisher | Department of Political Studies |
| publisherStr | Department of Political Studies |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/17313 Gender, community and identity : women and Afrikaner nationalism in the Volksmoeder discourse of Die Boerevrou (1919-1931) Kruger, Lou-Marie Du Toit, André Political Studies Afrikaners Women South Africa - History Includes bibliographies. As a feminist exploration of the problematic relationship between Afrikaans women and Afrikaner nationalism, this thesis is primarily concerned with the construction of the social identities of Afrikaans women between 1919 and 1931, the crucial formative years of Afrikaner nationalism. The relationship between women and Afrikaner nationalism is thus addressed by an investigation at the level of intellectual history. The emergence of Afrikaner nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century was accompanied by the articulation of a distinctive gender discourse, the study of which is central to this thesis. Within this discourse, which may be termed the "volksmoeder" discourse, a new identity and new roles were contrived for Afrikaner women. We first investigate the social and historical context in which the discourse was generated and then analyse the "volksmoeder" discourse itself by focusing on texts from Die Boerevrou, a women's magazine launched by Mabel Malherbe in 1919. Rather than taking the Die Boerevrou-texts for granted or seeing them as simple reflections of reality, they are investigated as constructions. The questions of why these particular constructions had appeared in that specific context and what ends they achieved are posed. Rather than simply taking the discursive constructions at face value they are construed as "answers" to certain underlying social and historical issues. On a theoretical level the problem of the construction of gender and ethnic identities is informed by recent work in the field of discourse analysis, while the imagining or invention of nation-communities is discussed with reference to the work of Benedict Anderson, Ernst Gellner, Eric Hobsbawm and Tom Nairn. The investigation of Die Boerevrou-texts as particular articulations of the volksmoeder discourse shows how the social identities of Afrikaans women were socially constructed in the volksmoeder discourse. It suggests that the social subjectivities of Afrikaans women were by no means simple or transparent. In the texts of Die Boerevrou it becomes clear that even while being shaped by Afrikaner nationalism, women themselves were active in the shaping of Afrikaner nationalism. While they were constituted as subjects in the anti-feminist discourse of Afrikaner nationalism, they remained mobile within this discourse: always negotiating, planning, creating and articulating new identities and roles for themselves. The image of women as passive victims of a male Afrikaner discourses is thus denied. However, it is asserted that the volksmoeder discourse as a gender discourse can and should be severely criticised from a feminist perspective. 2016-02-29T11:56:46Z 2016-02-29T11:56:46Z 1991 Master Thesis Masters MSocSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17313 eng application/pdf Department of Political Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Political Studies Afrikaners Women South Africa - History Kruger, Lou-Marie Gender, community and identity : women and Afrikaner nationalism in the Volksmoeder discourse of Die Boerevrou (1919-1931) |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Gender, community and identity : women and Afrikaner nationalism in the Volksmoeder discourse of Die Boerevrou (1919-1931) |
| title_full | Gender, community and identity : women and Afrikaner nationalism in the Volksmoeder discourse of Die Boerevrou (1919-1931) |
| title_fullStr | Gender, community and identity : women and Afrikaner nationalism in the Volksmoeder discourse of Die Boerevrou (1919-1931) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gender, community and identity : women and Afrikaner nationalism in the Volksmoeder discourse of Die Boerevrou (1919-1931) |
| title_short | Gender, community and identity : women and Afrikaner nationalism in the Volksmoeder discourse of Die Boerevrou (1919-1931) |
| title_sort | gender community and identity women and afrikaner nationalism in the volksmoeder discourse of die boerevrou 1919 1931 |
| topic | Political Studies Afrikaners Women South Africa - History |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17313 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT krugerloumarie gendercommunityandidentitywomenandafrikanernationalisminthevolksmoederdiscourseofdieboerevrou19191931 |