Marie Kruger
Biographic Data
| ID | 112448 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marie Kruger |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marie |
| FAMILY NAME | Kruger |
| SIGNATURE | KRUGER M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stellenbosch University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1972-4450 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
"Your Voice Rings Deep"
Remembered as an "unsung heroine" in Mark Kaplan's documentary Betrayal and in the memorial statue designed by Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, the life of the South African political activist Nokuthula Simelane emerges as part of a layered memory landscape, illustrating the unique visual languages of these heritage markers and the citational practices resonating between them. In my reading of these memorial objects, I emphasize the crafting of performati…
White women without weapons
This article examines the representation of female characters in four plays about the Border War. Female characters are discussed using three archetypes: that of the Virgin, the Mother and the Whore. Aside from giving an overview of female characters in the Border War drama canon, the article also critically analyses whether these representations serve to strengthen or destabilize the hegemonic view of the conscript as a hero which was perpetuate…
Commemorating the past in the urban present
Located in the centre of Johannesburg, Constitution Hill represents a distinctive memorial site that commemorates the experiences of male and female prisoners with the state-sponsored violence of apartheid. As part of a larger urban development, Constitution Hill juxtaposes the heritage installations in the three former prison buildings with the new Constitutional Court, the Commission for Gender Equality, as well as some commercial and rental sp…
Witnessing the Ruins of Apartheid
Constitution Hill, a unique and hybrid memorial site in the centre of Johannesburg, commemorates the violence of apartheid in the city’s infamous prison complex. Based on a series of workshops with former inmates and prison staff, the permanent exhibitions emphasize the importance of personal objects and testimonials for understanding the human rights violations of the past and their significance for the present and the future. In response to Yvo…
What’s in a name? The sense or non-sense of labelling puppets in contemporary Western theatre
Different terms can be use for puppet theatre: figure theatre, object theatre and animation theatre. Contemporary performances including puppets are nowadays often referred to as multimedia performances, crossover theatre and visual theatre. Some artists avoid the word “puppet” because of negative associations: close association with children and low status amongst the arts. Professional puppetry in many Western countries has evolved into a wide-…
South African adult puppetry
South African puppetry with its diverse European roots started to take on an eclectic and collaborative character and social consciousness in the 1980s. In the 1990s the boundaries between puppetry and ordinary theatre started to blur increasingly as puppets became part of a number of award-winning and internationally acclaimed mainstream theatre productions which featured a mixture of visual elements in a layered text. Prominent puppet artist su…
Women's Literature in Kenya and Uganda
For nearly a decade, writers' collectives such as Kwani Trust in Kenya and Femrite , the Ugandan women writers' association, have dramatically reshaped the East African literary scene. This text exten
The Dark Sides of Modernity
In Yvonne Owuor’s award winning short story “Weight of Whispers,” a Tutsi prince escaping from the Rwandan genocide laments the loss of his privileged life to the nostalgic tune of the “Indépendance Cha Cha Cha.”1 Once the desire for political power and sovereignty was famously immortalized in Kabasele’s well-known song, yet now the historical figures lauded in the upbeat celebration of Independence—Lumumba, Tshombe, and Kasavubu—have become mart…
Historical Modernities
A single, poignant scene from The Invisible Weevil eloquently speaks to the vision of modernity informing the works of Margaret Ogola, Jane Kaberuka, and Mary Okurut. 1 Heading home from the Ugandan capital Kampala to the rural areas, a group of passengers finds themselves squeezed into a group taxi. As the vehicle moves along cautiously, most of the passengers enjoy the soothing lyrics of Jim Reeves’s song “Precious Memories,” with its promise o…
Puppets and adult entertainment in South Africa
Puppetry in South Africa, most probably the one country in the whole of Africa with the most diversified application of this art form, is largely a colonial heritage which dates back to the nineteenth century. Puppetry started as adult entertainment at the Cape settlement, but became predominantly children's entertainment in its pioneering phase and with the arrival of television in 1976, a position which it still retains. Puppets, however, featu…
The Sound of Metal and the Taste of Coffee
(2009). “The Sound of Metal and the Taste of Coffee: Modernity, Race, and Gender in ‘The State of Tides”. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 186-205
Puppets in educational entertainment in South Africa
Puppetry is a well-established form of artistic expression in South Africa which reflects the diversity of this applied art form. It also demonstrates the fascinating and exceptional abilities of the puppet in various manifestations - ranging from sophisticated mainstream theatre productions to amateur shows and extensive educational campaigns - to disseminate knowledge and to change the social attitudes of various age groups and in the classroom…
Puppets in Education and Development in Africa
The Power of Double Vision
The appeal of the puppet lies partly in its dual nature: it is at once a representative object without life while at the same time it enacts the imagined life with which it is endowed by the puppeteer. Marie Kruger argues that this duality makes puppetry a uniquely effective way of questioning the very traditional values it appears to embody, and so of stimulating a sense of the need for social change. She relates her argument to the long traditi…
Narrative in the Time of Aids
Confessions of an AIDS Victim (1993) and Chira (1997) portray AIDS in postcolonial Kenya as a painful social experience that blurs and shifts cultural values until the search for a new normative and narrative community becomes inevitable. In the midst of such turbulent change, the possibility for dissent and subversion grows, but so does the desire to integrate split subjectivities into a meaningful narrative with a clearly defined moral center. …
Pantomime in South Africa
South African pantomimes reflect practically all the traditional patterns of the British pantomime in terms of story choice, tone, plot structure, characters and casting, topicality, visual presentation and auditory elements such as punning and ambiguity, jokes, humorous naming, rhyming speech at times, actuality, song, music, and dance. However, local pantomimes are unmistakably South African. The reason for this is possibly connected to the phe…
English pantomime
(2000). English pantomime: Reflections on a dynamic tradition. South African Theatre Journal: Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 146-173
Gendered Encounters. Challenging Cultural Boundaries and Social Hierarchies in Africa
African Feminism. The Politics of Survival in Sub-Saharan Africa
Kikuyu Gender Norms and Narratives
Narrative in the Time of Aids
Confessions of an AIDS Victim (1993) and Chira (1997) portray AIDS in postcolonial Kenya as a painful social experience that blurs and shifts cultural values until the search for a new normative and narrative community becomes inevitable. In the midst of such turbulent change, the possibility for dissent and subversion grows, but so does the desire to integrate split subjectivities into a meaningful narrative with a clearly defined moral center. …
Gendered Encounters. Challenging Cultural Boundaries and Social Hierarchies in Africa
Kikuyu Gender Norms and Narratives
Gendered Encounters. Challenging Cultural Boundaries and Social Hierarchies in Africa
African Feminism. The Politics of Survival in Sub-Saharan Africa
Kikuyu Gender Norms and Narratives
English pantomime
(2000). English pantomime: Reflections on a dynamic tradition. South African Theatre Journal: Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 146-173
Pantomime in South Africa
South African pantomimes reflect practically all the traditional patterns of the British pantomime in terms of story choice, tone, plot structure, characters and casting, topicality, visual presentation and auditory elements such as punning and ambiguity, jokes, humorous naming, rhyming speech at times, actuality, song, music, and dance. However, local pantomimes are unmistakably South African. The reason for this is possibly connected to the phe…
Narrative in the Time of Aids
Confessions of an AIDS Victim (1993) and Chira (1997) portray AIDS in postcolonial Kenya as a painful social experience that blurs and shifts cultural values until the search for a new normative and narrative community becomes inevitable. In the midst of such turbulent change, the possibility for dissent and subversion grows, but so does the desire to integrate split subjectivities into a meaningful narrative with a clearly defined moral center. …
The Power of Double Vision
The appeal of the puppet lies partly in its dual nature: it is at once a representative object without life while at the same time it enacts the imagined life with which it is endowed by the puppeteer. Marie Kruger argues that this duality makes puppetry a uniquely effective way of questioning the very traditional values it appears to embody, and so of stimulating a sense of the need for social change. She relates her argument to the long traditi…
Puppets in Education and Development in Africa
Puppets in educational entertainment in South Africa
Puppetry is a well-established form of artistic expression in South Africa which reflects the diversity of this applied art form. It also demonstrates the fascinating and exceptional abilities of the puppet in various manifestations - ranging from sophisticated mainstream theatre productions to amateur shows and extensive educational campaigns - to disseminate knowledge and to change the social attitudes of various age groups and in the classroom…
The Sound of Metal and the Taste of Coffee
(2009). “The Sound of Metal and the Taste of Coffee: Modernity, Race, and Gender in ‘The State of Tides”. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 186-205
Women's Literature in Kenya and Uganda
For nearly a decade, writers' collectives such as Kwani Trust in Kenya and Femrite , the Ugandan women writers' association, have dramatically reshaped the East African literary scene. This text exten
The Dark Sides of Modernity
In Yvonne Owuor’s award winning short story “Weight of Whispers,” a Tutsi prince escaping from the Rwandan genocide laments the loss of his privileged life to the nostalgic tune of the “Indépendance Cha Cha Cha.”1 Once the desire for political power and sovereignty was famously immortalized in Kabasele’s well-known song, yet now the historical figures lauded in the upbeat celebration of Independence—Lumumba, Tshombe, and Kasavubu—have become mart…
Historical Modernities
A single, poignant scene from The Invisible Weevil eloquently speaks to the vision of modernity informing the works of Margaret Ogola, Jane Kaberuka, and Mary Okurut. 1 Heading home from the Ugandan capital Kampala to the rural areas, a group of passengers finds themselves squeezed into a group taxi. As the vehicle moves along cautiously, most of the passengers enjoy the soothing lyrics of Jim Reeves’s song “Precious Memories,” with its promise o…
Puppets and adult entertainment in South Africa
Puppetry in South Africa, most probably the one country in the whole of Africa with the most diversified application of this art form, is largely a colonial heritage which dates back to the nineteenth century. Puppetry started as adult entertainment at the Cape settlement, but became predominantly children's entertainment in its pioneering phase and with the arrival of television in 1976, a position which it still retains. Puppets, however, featu…
South African adult puppetry
South African puppetry with its diverse European roots started to take on an eclectic and collaborative character and social consciousness in the 1980s. In the 1990s the boundaries between puppetry and ordinary theatre started to blur increasingly as puppets became part of a number of award-winning and internationally acclaimed mainstream theatre productions which featured a mixture of visual elements in a layered text. Prominent puppet artist su…
What’s in a name? The sense or non-sense of labelling puppets in contemporary Western theatre
Different terms can be use for puppet theatre: figure theatre, object theatre and animation theatre. Contemporary performances including puppets are nowadays often referred to as multimedia performances, crossover theatre and visual theatre. Some artists avoid the word “puppet” because of negative associations: close association with children and low status amongst the arts. Professional puppetry in many Western countries has evolved into a wide-…
Witnessing the Ruins of Apartheid
Constitution Hill, a unique and hybrid memorial site in the centre of Johannesburg, commemorates the violence of apartheid in the city’s infamous prison complex. Based on a series of workshops with former inmates and prison staff, the permanent exhibitions emphasize the importance of personal objects and testimonials for understanding the human rights violations of the past and their significance for the present and the future. In response to Yvo…
Commemorating the past in the urban present
Located in the centre of Johannesburg, Constitution Hill represents a distinctive memorial site that commemorates the experiences of male and female prisoners with the state-sponsored violence of apartheid. As part of a larger urban development, Constitution Hill juxtaposes the heritage installations in the three former prison buildings with the new Constitutional Court, the Commission for Gender Equality, as well as some commercial and rental sp…
White women without weapons
This article examines the representation of female characters in four plays about the Border War. Female characters are discussed using three archetypes: that of the Virgin, the Mother and the Whore. Aside from giving an overview of female characters in the Border War drama canon, the article also critically analyses whether these representations serve to strengthen or destabilize the hegemonic view of the conscript as a hero which was perpetuate…
"Your Voice Rings Deep"
Remembered as an "unsung heroine" in Mark Kaplan's documentary Betrayal and in the memorial statue designed by Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, the life of the South African political activist Nokuthula Simelane emerges as part of a layered memory landscape, illustrating the unique visual languages of these heritage markers and the citational practices resonating between them. In my reading of these memorial objects, I emphasize the crafting of performati…
Art (14 works) · History (14 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · Gender Studies (11 works) · Literature (9 works) · African history and culture studies (8 works) · Visual arts (8 works) · Aesthetics (7 works) · Law (7 works)