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Gender performativity, its variances depending on their historical, social and cultural contexts, and the rituals, representations and institutions involved in gender performances are some of the issues the authors addressed in this collection. Gender under Construction takes a non-essentialist view of gender and provides illustrative examples of gender constructive processes by pursuing them in various contexts and by means of diverse methodologies. In so doing, the book demonstrates that it is unfeasible to consider gender as a fixed biological trait. Instead, the authors propose to look at gender performance as ongoing processes in which femininities and masculinities enter multiple and dynamic intersections with a myriad of categories, including those of nationality, ethnicity, class, sexuality and age. Contributors are Iqbal Akthar, Renata Ćuk, Ewa Glapka, Deirdre Hynes, Borja Ibaseta, Martin King, Ana Cristina Moreira Lima, Mervi Patosalmi, Marcia Bastos de Sá, Andréa Costa da Silva, Vera Helena Ferraz de Siqueira, Christi van der Westhuizen and Isabelle V. Zinn.
When Geert Hofstede famously defined culture as collective programming of the mind, the definition broadly referred to culture as such, including all the layers in his “onion” model. The title of this volume, Culture’s Software, represents a development of this original idea and was inspired by none other than Professor Hofstede himself. He used this phrase over thirty years later when lecturing to an international group of scholars gathered in Poland to debate the idea of cultural communication styles, which has, in recent years, been fruitfully discussed from a fresh perspective by scholars working within cognitive and cultural linguistics. The debate has given rise to this book, which will inspire further research into this fascinating subject.
This collection of essays on selected texts in literature, film and the media is driven by a shared theme of contesting the binary thinking in respect of gender and sexuality. The three parts of this book – “contesting norms”, “performing selves” and “blurring the lines” – delineate the queer celebration of difference and deviance. They pinpoint the limitation of assumed norms and subverting them, revel in the fluid and ambiguous self that springs from the contestation of those norms, and then repeatedly transgress and, as a result, obscure the limits that separate the normal from the abnormal. The variety of texts included in the collection ranges from a discussion of queer subjects represented in film, television and literature to that of the representations of other non-normative figures (including a madwoman, a freak or a prostitute) and to gender-role contestation and gender-bending practicing evidenced in the press, theatre, film, literature and popular culture.
This innovative study uses rich new evidence from the UK to explore university life and examine how ideas about Islam and Muslim identities are produced on campus.
This study presents the history of the Market Photo Workshop (MPW) in Johannesburg and works produced by its new generation of photography students. Founded in 1989 by internationally renowned documentary photographer David Goldblatt, the MPW has reflected upon South African political struggles and sociocultural changes since its creation. Its foundation parallels a moment in time when photography was considered a ‘truth telling’ genre and an essential source of documents deployed against the apartheid regime. This book reflects on the evolution of the MPW in the post-apartheid era and explores how its new generation of students engages the photographic tradition of this institution and the revolutionary times that accompanied its creation to question their present moment. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual studies, photography, African studies, cultural studies and post-colonial studies.
Bridal magazines have become increasingly popular in Western society, proliferating the idea of a ‘princess bride’ on her ‘big day’. Yet little has been written on how the ever-expanding wedding media and the popular wedding culture constructs gender and affects the ways women live and experience their weddings. Offering a critique of contemporary wedding discourse, this book marries together analyses of media texts and their reception to propose a new approach to media discourse. The analysis richly illustrates how women are invited to embrace not only the stereotypical idea of bridal femininity but also a consumptive way of experiencing it. Through examination of brides’ accounts of their ‘big days’, the book observes the imprints of the popular gender imagery on their self-portraits and self-narratives, and describes the women’s diverse approaches to them. Based on insights from gender and critical discourse studies, sociology and audience research, this exploration illuminates the ongoing debate on ‘media and gender’ and its methodological approaches.
Bridal magazines have become increasingly popular in Western society, proliferating the idea of a ‘princess bride’ on her ‘big day’. Yet little has been written on how the ever-expanding wedding media and the popular wedding culture constructs gender and affects the ways women live and experience their weddings. Offering a critique of contemporary wedding discourse, this book marries together analyses of media texts and their reception to propose a new approach to media discourse. The analysis richly illustrates how women are invited to embrace not only the stereotypical idea of bridal femininity but also a consumptive way of experiencing it. Through examination of brides’ accounts of their ‘big days’, the book observes the imprints of the popular gender imagery on their self-portraits and self-narratives, and describes the women’s diverse approaches to them. Based on insights from gender and critical discourse studies, sociology and audience research, this exploration illuminates the ongoing debate on ‘media and gender’ and its methodological approaches.
This book explores the normalization of HIV and AIDS, reflecting upon the intended and unintended consequences of the multifarious "AIDS industry." The Normalization of the HIV and AIDS Epidemic in South Africa deals with the manner in which the HIV and AIDS epidemic has become such a well-known disease with such wide-ranging ramifications. With its focus on the "AIDS industry," this book examines issues such as the framing of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in a manner that greatly fostered notions of stigmatization and moralization. This book looks at the complexities of dealing with the epidemic in contemporary South Africa, examining the difficulties of addressing the social aspects of a disea...
This book argues for an inherent connection between Critical Discourse Studies and Communication Studies. The volume begins with a comprehensive introduction that documents the shift towards Critical Discourse Studies in the study of socio-discursive phenomena, as well as its implications in terms of theories, methodologies, and objects of study within and beyond Communication. The diverse selection of case studies further demonstrates the possibilities located at the intersection of Communication and Critical Discourse Studies, ultimately providing solid ground for a firmer cross-fertilization between the two. The chapters as a whole provide an insightful state of the art of the kinds of research that emerge when we consider the traversing trajectories of Critical Discourse Studies and Communication, advancing our understanding of self-reflexivity, journalism production and social media, discourses of neurodiversity, the environment, autism advocacy, and national memory. They also provide promising emergent venues that speak to the value and the need of interdisciplinary theory building. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Review of Communication.