Browsing by Author "Albertyn, Marina"

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    Writing the border : avoiding restorative nostalgia by using social media discourses to create a Borderdrama
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12) Albertyn, Maria Adriana; Albertyn, Marina; Du Preez, Petrus; Kruger, M. S.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Drama.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A number of plays have been staged about the South African Border War. Some of these plays have been uncritical in their representation of the war and have promoted a kind of restorative nostalgia that glosses over the SADF’s share in a shameful past. In staging the Border War, the playwright has to portray perpetrator trauma in a way that engages the audience to critically examine the past. This study uses the arts-based research framework to create a play that reflects the research done on Border War veterans. The study firstly identifies thematic material in South African plays about the Border War in an overview of the lineage of practice. It then examines social media discourses on the Border war to generate thematic material for the creation of a new play. The drama that was created from this research, is called Bloed en Bodem. Reviews from the performance of this drama at two national arts festivals are primarily used to assess the play as an example of research-led practice. The study’s primary conclusion is that complexity and binary voices can be an antidote to restorative nostalgia. By including voices that both contradict and expose the veteran’s views of the past, the master narrative of conscription is destablized and opportunities for responsible meaning-making emerge.