The illustrated children's Bible as cultural text in the construction of Afrikaner national identity
Date
2007-03
Authors
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Publisher
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
This thesis is a critical analysis of Afrikaans illustrated children’s Bibles as cultural texts
in Afrikaner nationalist discourse. Christian Calvinism was a distinct signifier in
Afrikaner nationalism and served as an instrument in the construction of Afrikaner
national identity. I propose in this study that Afrikaans children’s Bibles encoded the
principles of Afrikaner nationalism and were used as didactic tools for the configuration
of an exclusive national consciousness. A potential pitfall in the analysis of Afrikaans
children’s Bibles as nationalist texts is the fact that these books were translated from
Dutch or English into Afrikaans. However, the act of translating the Bible, ‘the Word of
God’, into Afrikaans served to confirm the ‘totem’ of Afrikaner Christian-Nationalism.
The appropriation of the Bible re-contextualized the ‘Holy Scriptures’, placing them
within the milieu of Afrikaner national identity and consciousness: language and religion
thus became interrelated catalysts in the social construction of Afrikaner national
consciousness. Finally, my own reinvention of the Afrikaans picture Bible – in opposition
to conventional illustrated children’s Bibles – is put forward and discussed as a
postmodern text that encodes a radically different post-Apartheid conception of identity.
Description
Thesis (MPhil(Visual Arts. Illustration))--Stellenbosch University, 2007.
Keywords
Dissertations -- Art, Theses -- Art, Dissertations -- Visual arts, Theses -- Visual arts, Dissertations -- Illustration, Theses -- Illustration, Bible stories, Afrikaans -- Social aspects -- South Africa, Bible -- Children's use -- South Africa, Bible -- Illustrations -- Social aspects -- South Africa, Bible -- Influence -- Modern civilization, Nationalism -- South Africa -- Religious aspects, Afrikaners -- South Africa -- Ethnic identity -- Religious aspects