Interrogating the Representations of Extreme Gender Violence in Two Contemporary South African Plays by Lara Foot and Phyllis Klotz
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Articulating Pain and Surviving Trauma: Interrogating the Representations of Extreme Gender violence in Two Contemporary South African plays by Lara Foot and Phyllis Klotz NOMPUMELELO MTSHALI STUDENT NUMBER: 210541237 50% Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the degree of Master of Arts College of Humanities, School of Arts University of KwaZulu-Natal Drama and Performance Studies Programme Supervised by Dr Lliane Loots 2019 DECLARATION – PLAGIARISM I, Nompumelelo Mtshali (student number 210541237) declare that 1. This is my original research. 2. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. 3. This thesis does not contain other persons‘data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. 4. This thesis does not contain other persons' writing, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: a. Their words have been re-written, but the general information attributed to them has been referenced b. Where their exact words have been used, then their writing has been placed in italics and inside quotation marks and referenced. 5. This thesis does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and pasted from the Internet, unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed in the thesis and in the References sections. Signed at …Randburg……. On 24 June 2019………………………………………... Signature: … i DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my late mother, without whom I would not be who I am today. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my Fakude family at large, especially my three mothers Ntombifuthi Fakude, Norma Ntombela and Thandiwe Fakude, without your love, support and wise guidance I would be lost, I can never thank you enough. I would like to thank my sister Nombuso Mtshali, you generously invested all your savings into this degree, your encouragement and selfless support is unwavering. I appreciate you. I would like to thank my spiritual parents Ole Karl Wang and Mama Ursula Wang for their constant spiritual guidance and support. I would like to thank the National Arts Council for funding my studies. I would like to acknowledge the College of Humanities and school of Arts in the Pietermaritzburg and Howard College campus, especially Ntokozo Madlala. I would like to acknowledge Phyllis Klotz for the contribution of her beautiful work to this dissertation. I would like to acknowledge my colleagues Geraldine Coertze, Lungile Mncube, Princess Sibanda and Charmaine Kahiya for their invaluable input. Last but certainly not least, thank you Dr Loots for your thoughtful supervision and sensitivity to this important topic. iii ABSTRACT The high rape statistics in South Africa has launched diverse research enquiries to interrogate extreme gender-based violence particularly child rape and corrective rape. The findings from broad research studies for example by Rachel Jewkes, Hetty Rose-Junius and Loveday Penn Kekana (2005) point to poverty as a cultural legacy of colonialism and power imbalances between genders as some of the most significant symptoms of gender-based violence. Lara Foot and Phyllis Klotz as South African playwrights, directors and activists have used real-life rape cases to create plays that heighten awareness on rape through horrific fictionalised stories. This half-dissertation applies a literary and performative analysis on these plays namely, Tshepang (2005) and Chapter 2 Section 9 (2016), as postcolonial feminist theatrical texts that engage critical scholarly and performance discourse on gender-based violence in South Africa. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION – PLAGIARISM ......................................................................................... i DEDICATION .......................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. iv INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE ...................................................................................................................... 6 1.0 Understanding the Landscape of Extreme Gender violence in South Africa .................. 6 1.1 Gender Violence in a Patriarchal Society ........................................................................ 8 1.2 Child Rape: An extreme gender violence on girls ......................................................... 10 1.3 Research Study: “If they rape me, they are not to blame” ............................................. 12 1.4. Corrective Rape and the South African Constitution .................................................... 16 1.5. Cases and Convictions of Corrective Rape ................................................................... 18 1.6. Theatre: A Creative Tool for Addressing Gender-Based Violence .............................. 22 1.7. Narrative Truths in South African Theatre ................................................................... 24 1.8. Image Making for Theatre ............................................................................................ 26 CHAPTER TWO ................................................................................................................... 30 2.0 Articulating a postcolonial feminist framework to address gender violence and theatre .............................................................................................................................................. 30 2.1 Representation in the Theatre ........................................................................................ 32 2.2. Black Feminism ............................................................................................................ 33 2.3. Criticism of Postcolonial Feminism .............................................................................. 35 2.4. Sara Suleri: Criticism of Postcolonial Feminism .......................................................... 37 CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................................... 39 3.0 Lara Foot and Tshepang ................................................................................................. 39 3.1. Magic Realism: Image making with Symbols .............................................................. 41 3.2 Theatre Narrative Truths from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ................... 46 v 3.3. Patriarchal Society and Gender Roles ........................................................................... 49 CHAPTER FOUR .................................................................................................................. 52 4.0 Phyllis Klotz and Chapter 2 Section 9 ........................................................................... 52 4.1 The Post Dramatic Approach ......................................................................................... 55 4.2 Not Naming .................................................................................................................... 56 4.3 Corrective Rape: A Black Problem? .............................................................................. 58 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 62 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 64 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................ 67 Appendix A .......................................................................................................................... 67 Appendix B .......................................................................................................................... 94 vi “In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.” ― Judith Lewis Herman vii INTRODUCTION The nature of this research is a qualitative study. “Critical qualitative studies have gained popularity over the past decade as a preferred category among researchers who find themselves committed to conducting inquiries through which they can locate and, in some way, confront the hegemonies and inequalities of social life” (Kort, 2002: 381). The textual analysis will specifically focus on interrogating the literary and theatrical representations of gender-based violence used in Tshepang and, secondly the methodology of Verbatim theatre is interrogated to analyse the representation of corrective rape in Chapter 2 Section 9. Magic Realism is interrogated as a literary form that is used by Foot in her theatrical representation of child rape in Tshepang and Verbatim theatre will only be used to analyse the representation of corrective rape in Chapter 2 Section 9. The ideas surrounding notions of double colonisation, patriarchy and silencing will also be applied in the analysis. South Africa has a long history1 of gender-based