Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

The politics of narrating Cinderella in Namibia

Bibliographic Data

ID10836675
AuthorsHein Willemse (0000-0002-9806-4410, University of Pretoria, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume41
Issue2
Pages69-83
Publication date2018-04-20
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTydskrif vir letterkunde (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0041-476X • E-ISSN: 2309-9070
PublisherAcademy of Science of South Africa (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.4314/tvl.v41i2.29675
OpenAlexW2025108202
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited5

This article reports on variations of the Cinderella fairytale as told by two southern Namibian storytellers, Martha Frederik and Katrina Louw. The analysis concentrates on the self-imagery of these storytellers as reflected in their performances. Although their stories are not overtly political they interpret their social environment, the relationships between men and women and employment interactions. In this sense these narratives communicate deeper dimensions of Namibian colonial relationships. Life in the towns of Aranos and Gochas is uninspiring, since these are small agricultural supply stations, settled in the mostly arid, sparse, semi-desert southern region of Namibia, Hardap. These communities are generally dirt poor, inhabited mainly by the unemployed, children, women and pensioners. The article further explores facets of the Frederik and Louw's re-interpretations of Cinderella. A few salient sections in especially the performance of Frederik are selected to demonstrate how the storytellers reconstruct their experience of life. Both texts are adapted intuitively to the storytellers' social circumstances and lived experience. The article concludes that it is through the exploration of such narrative experiences that the dialogical relationship between the powerful and the powerless can be understood

Aesthetics · Art · Dialogical self · Literature · Lived experience · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Gender Studies · Gender Studies in Language · History · Law · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Psychology · Social Psychology

  • Hein Willemse

    Open Access•Jacomien Van Niekerk•Tydskrif vir letterkunde•2022

  • The types of the folktale

    Antti Amatus Aarne•The types of the folktale•1961

  • Power and the Praise Poem

    Landeg White, Leroy Vail•Power and the Praise Poem•1992

  • Oral Tradition as History

    Jan Vansina, Jan M Vansina•Oral Tradition As History•1985

  • Cinderella

    Theodore C Humphrey, Alan Dundes•Journal of American Folklore•1984

  • The Political Unconscious

    Fredric Jameson•The Political Unconscious•2015

Citations per year0.25
Citation span2022 - 2022 (1)
Highly citedNo

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae