Browsing by Author "Nzimande, Melba Belinda Melissa."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

An ethnographic audience study of isiZulu-speaking UKZN students' responses to constructions of male characters in Muvhango.
(2015) Nzimande, Melba Belinda Melissa.; Jackson, Fiona Margaret.
This dissertation is an ethnographic study of the constructions of masculinity in soap opera, and focuses specifically on how a group of isiZulu-speaking students who study at the University of KwaZulu-Natal interpret Muvhango, a Tshivenda soap opera. This study also presents how these viewers interpret, analyse, understand and group these constructions of masculinity. An analysis of how the students view each of the male characters is presented, and this is contextualised in terms of current and previous research on soap operas, on masculinity broadly, and on masculinity in South Africa. Group in-depth interviews were conducted with three different groups — a group consisting of women only, a group consisting of men only, and a mixed group made up of both men and women. The students’ reasoning as to why they watched soap opera was investigated. This study purposefully chose to interview isiZulu-speaking Black students as subjects, to understand why a soap opera that is predominantly Tshivenda, with Tshivenda discourses, has an impact on the lives of the isiZulu-speaking viewers who watch. It surfaced during the interviews that watching soap opera is a communal activity that creates a discursive space for multiple responses and for debating the social acceptance of some of the topics expressed by the soap opera. How the respondents responded to the male characters of Muvhango was examined. The students responded negatively to male characters who were passive, as well as those who generally represented hegemonic and aggressive masculinities. The respondents identified with certain male characters whom they recognised as typical of the types of men they would encounter in their everyday lives; however, they found other characters to be distasteful to such an extent that in addition to disliking the characters on screen, they formed negative opinions of the actors as private individuals separate from their acting roles. In summary, this dissertation examines the consumption of a Tshivenda soap opera by Black isiZulu-speaking students who all attend the same Christian church and who all reside in Pietermaritzburg.
An interpretive study of the representations of South African Zulu masculinities in the soap operas, Uzalo, Imbewu and Isibaya.
(2021) Nzimande, Melba Belinda Melissa.; Dyll, Lauren Eva.
Since their origins in the 1930s, soap operas have been known as a feminine genre. Contributing to soap opera scholarship, this study explores the interpretations of masculinities that are presented in three South African soap operas by Zulu male audiences living in KwaZulu-Natal - Uzalo, Imbewu and Isibaya. A constructivist approach guides the study in understanding that masculinities are fluid and influenced by social and cultural factors. It articulates the complexity and ambiguity of contemporary South African masculinities, thus working against stereotypical representations of black South African men. An indigenised cultural studies approach includes how the study’s focus group participants read the soap opera preferred messages of Zulu masculinities and reasons for their dominant, negotiated or oppositional readings of these. This is enabled through a comparison of data collected through in-depth interviews with producers from each of the soap operas, with responses from 30 focus group participants in rural and urban areas of Durban and Pietermaritzburg. Data is analysed through the development of deductive and inductive thematisation where the relationship between the theme and international and local theoretical positions are explained. Typically, soap opera scholarship argues that the genre subverts discourses of hegemonic masculinity. This study found that contemporary South African soap opera representations of masculinities both uphold and subvert dominant discourses of Zulu masculinities. The significance of this is twofold. Firstly, soap opera producers are creating narratives that no longer conform only to traditional soap opera codes and conventions. They encode messages through narratives that draw in male viewers and use the power of cultural proximity in representations, meaning that there is a move to the indigenisation of settings, storylines and languages to attract audiences. Secondly, male audiences decode the messages through parasocial relationships and cultural proximity. The study adds to understanding the specificities of viewing within the African context, and the importance of creatives to be aware of the ways in which these habits shape the meanings of the programmes they produce. In sum, the study contributes to African masculinity studies, but particularly masculinity studies in soap operas in terms of representation and audience engagement in a “post” era, from the perspective of the global South.