Rehabilitating a whiteness disgraced

Afrikanerwhite talkin post-apartheid South Africa

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5843345
AutoresMelissa Steyn (0000-0003-0644-3606, University of Cape Town, autor correspondente), Melissa E Steyn
Ano2004
Volume52
Fascículo2
Páginas143-169
Data de publicação2004-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCommunication Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0146-3373 • E-ISSN: 1746-4102
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01463370409370187
OpenAlexW2083938190
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas53
Referências citadas76

This paper is part of a longer work on whiteness in post-apartheid South Africa, which analyzes the discourses resistant to transformation in the country, labeled "white talk." Based on a discourse analysis of the 2001 letters to the editor of Rapport newspaper, a national Afrikaans Sunday newspaper, this paper focuses on aspects of "white talk" within Afrikaans speaking South Africa. Afrikaner whiteness has an affinity with subaltern whiteness, in that Afrikaners contended with the more powerful forces of the British Empire throughout their history. As a resistant whiteness, the whiteness of the Afrikaner has historically been rolled into ethnic/nationalistic discourse. The current moment in South African history presents a crisis to Afrikaner identity similar to the time of dislocation that saw the original discursive suturing of Afrikaner identity into nationalism. But now the worldview has imploded; Apartheid is the "other" of the New South Africa; Afrikaners are perceived to be in need of "rehabilitation." Certain ethnic anxieties are pervasive, and the paper explores four of these. White talk in this context attempts to do two things: (1) to re-inscribe the Afrikaner mythology that secured a special place for the Afrikaner in the political, economic, and social life of the country, so that the ground gained through the apartheid era of systematic Afrikaner advancement is not lost in the new social order, while (2) presenting Afrikanerdom as compatible with the New South Africa

White (mutation · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · South African History and Culture