Ubuntu Strategies: Constructing Spaces of Belonging in Contemporary South African Culture

by Hanneke Stuit

Overview

Hanneke Stuit delves into Ubuntu's relevance both in South Africa and in Western contexts, analyzing the political and ethical ramifications of the term's uses in different media including literature, cartoons, journalistic fiction, commercials, commodities, photography, and political manifestos in contemporary South African culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137586391
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	09/02/2016
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Hanneke Stuit is Assistant Professor of Literary and Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Researcher at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA).

Table of Contents

Introduction Ubuntu Unchained: A Travelling Concept.- 1 Ubuntu and Common Humanity in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.- 2 Ubuntu in Transit: From Divisive Pasts to Open Futures.- 3 Facing Others: Towards an Ethics of Ubuntu.- 4 “The Ubuntu Strategy”:The Commodification and Affective Politics of Ubuntu.- Afterword: Ubuntu Security.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This is a brilliant testimony to the fact that Ubuntu discourse is finally emerging from the long, dark and, often, sentimental discourse of African nationalism. Drawing on a wide range of cultural strategies in contemporary South Africa including novels, photography, poetry, and advertising, this original, unconventional and erudite, not to mention beautifully written, analysis will no doubt be welcomed by scholars who work in African and continental philosophy, LGBTI studies, literature and culture studies.” (Dr. Leonhard Praeg, author of “A Report on Ubuntu”)

“Hanneke Stuit conducts an innovative and conceptually bracing analysis of Ubuntu by way of detailed attention to diverse materializations of the South African politico-cultural scene. In her close readings of literary texts, cartoons, commercials, photographs, fashion accessories—and testimonies from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission—Stuit offers an inventive and thought-provoking contribution to theories and philosophies emerging from a South Africa in political transition.” (Prof. dr. Carrol Clarkson, author of “Countervoices and Drawing the Line”)