Intersections of Queer art and African Indigenous Culture

The Case of Inxeba (The Wound)

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8409302
AutoresMatthias Pauwels (0000-0002-3553-3101, University of Johannesburg, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen51
Número4
Páginas366-380
Fecha de publicación2020-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0007-1773 • E-ISSN: 2332-0486
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00071773.2020.1732578
OpenAlexW3007041307
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas6

This article assesses some recurrent criticisms based on respect for traditional culture levelled at artworks that thematise non-heteronormative gender positionalities in South Africa. More specifically, it reconsiders the stormy, local reception of the South African movie Inxeba (The Wound), a queer love story set in the context of the male initiation rites of the Xhosa community. The article focuses on criticisms of the movie based on the alleged misrepresentation and misappropriation of indigenous cultural practices. It aims to reflect on the complicated knot of problems that queer artists and activists have to navigate in South Africa, including entrenched heteronormative traditions, but also multiculturality and racial privilege. New ways of negotiating these problems are proposed through the development of a more complex topographical account of the intersections of multiple forms of marginality, as well as through the application of multiculturalist theories regarding ways to assist oppressed minorities in traditional cultures

Aesthetics · Art · Context (archaeology) · Indigenous · Linguistics · Misappropriation · Misrepresentation · Political science · Privilege (computing) · Queer · Sociology · Xhosa · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · South African History and Culture