Performativity and the gendered city

Johannesburg as modern African metropolis

Bibliographic Data

ID12786809
AuthorsLeana van der Merwe (0000-0003-0003-9936, University of Creation Art, Music & Social Work, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume27
Issue1
Pages1-25
Publication date2026-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSafundi (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1543-1304 • E-ISSN: 1753-3171
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17533171.2025.2610563
OpenAlexW7147616993
LanguageEN
References cited21

This paper examines Johannesburg as a gendered space by looking at texts by Ivan Vladislavic, and performance artworks by Anthea Moys and Donna Kukama in counterpoint. If Johannesburg is positioned by several authors as a quintessentially African metropolis that is being refashioned in postapartheid in creative and emergent ways, what implications does this have for women’s inclusion in the modernist project of ‘the nation’? The construction of lived space is discussed from a perspective of performativity as theorized by Sara Ahmed, and Judith Butler, by reading for expressions of the desire for visibility and inclusion by women in urban space. The movement of persons, either by walking, or driving, is positioned as generative, whereby meaning is created. It follows that imagining, writing, and performing space is akin to movement, and are strategies by which individuals can inscribe new meanings to urban space.

Ethnography · Gender relations · Narrative · Performativity · Postcolonialism (international relations · African history and culture studies · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · South African History and Culture

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