Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
Browning the archive: troubling normative formations of South African *Indian Identity
My study engages South African *Indian historiography through a gendered lens. Available archival material is largely owed to the colonial governance of the immigration of Indians as indentured labourers and passengers. Accordingly, *Indian women were sidelined and defined by colonial and patriarcha...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
Michaelis School of Fine Art
2026
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867611330346745856 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Singh, Zenaéca |
| author2 | Monoa, Thabang |
| author_browse | Monoa, Thabang Singh, Zenaéca |
| author_facet | Monoa, Thabang Singh, Zenaéca |
| author_sort | Singh, Zenaéca |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | My study engages South African *Indian historiography through a gendered lens. Available archival material is largely owed to the colonial governance of the immigration of Indians as indentured labourers and passengers. Accordingly, *Indian women were sidelined and defined by colonial and patriarchal structures that constructed them as chaste and subservient wives and daughters. However, they were also exoticized and deemed as deviant and immoral for causing outbreaks of gender-based violence, venereal diseases, and infant mortality in indentured communities. Therefore, notions of *Indian womanhood was largely overdetermined by the colonial and male gaze. Decolonial strategies of destabilization are critical to this study to subvert the visual and discursive regimes of *Indians. This study responsively centers the position of women to decipher their sense of agency as opposed to passivity. I therewith consider an artistic practice that combines an engagement with archival and personal material to expose the sublime violence and erasures of the past whilst filling in these gaps of history. Browning is an alternative term for referring to the complexity and hybridity of the South African *Indian identity outside of its normative formations. Through the indenture narrative and the aesthetics of sugar I work through historic and familial events that can help visualize and speculate a sense of the lived experience of South African *Indians or being Brown. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42685 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Michaelis School of Fine Art |
| publisherStr | Michaelis School of Fine Art |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42685 Browning the archive: troubling normative formations of South African *Indian Identity Singh, Zenaéca Monoa, Thabang Searle, Bernadette South African Indian Identity My study engages South African *Indian historiography through a gendered lens. Available archival material is largely owed to the colonial governance of the immigration of Indians as indentured labourers and passengers. Accordingly, *Indian women were sidelined and defined by colonial and patriarchal structures that constructed them as chaste and subservient wives and daughters. However, they were also exoticized and deemed as deviant and immoral for causing outbreaks of gender-based violence, venereal diseases, and infant mortality in indentured communities. Therefore, notions of *Indian womanhood was largely overdetermined by the colonial and male gaze. Decolonial strategies of destabilization are critical to this study to subvert the visual and discursive regimes of *Indians. This study responsively centers the position of women to decipher their sense of agency as opposed to passivity. I therewith consider an artistic practice that combines an engagement with archival and personal material to expose the sublime violence and erasures of the past whilst filling in these gaps of history. Browning is an alternative term for referring to the complexity and hybridity of the South African *Indian identity outside of its normative formations. Through the indenture narrative and the aesthetics of sugar I work through historic and familial events that can help visualize and speculate a sense of the lived experience of South African *Indians or being Brown. 2026-01-26T10:02:49Z 2026-01-26T10:02:49Z 2025 2026-01-26T09:58:18Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MFA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42685 en eng application/pdf Michaelis School of Fine Art Faculty of Humanities University of Cae Town |
| spellingShingle | South African Indian Identity Singh, Zenaéca Browning the archive: troubling normative formations of South African *Indian Identity |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Browning the archive: troubling normative formations of South African *Indian Identity |
| title_full | Browning the archive: troubling normative formations of South African *Indian Identity |
| title_fullStr | Browning the archive: troubling normative formations of South African *Indian Identity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Browning the archive: troubling normative formations of South African *Indian Identity |
| title_short | Browning the archive: troubling normative formations of South African *Indian Identity |
| title_sort | browning the archive troubling normative formations of south african indian identity |
| topic | South African Indian Identity |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42685 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT singhzenaeca browningthearchivetroublingnormativeformationsofsouthafricanindianidentity |