Poor whitism: The fictional volksmoeder in South African novels, 1920s-1940s

Poor whitism: The fictional volksmoeder in South African novels, 1920s-1940s

The phenomenon of the "poor white" social class dominated much of the academic, media and entertainment spheres for the first half of the twentieth century. This article examines poor white women as depicted in both fiction and non-fiction in South African literature and demonstrates that there is a certain overlap in their depiction. By combining the two types of literature it shows that selected novels, specifically those written during the first half of the twentieth century by authors from the Realist genre, may be considered cultural historical sources in their own right - in terms of portraying the daily lives and struggles of poor white women trying to fit into a male-constructed ideology. As a rather marginalised sector, poor-white women, are examined in terms of the volksmoeder concept and attention is given to how the novels redefined this term.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pretorius,Sian E.
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Historical Association of South Africa 2019
Online Access:http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0018-229X2019000100004
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spelling oai:scielo:S0018-229X20190001000042019-08-14Poor whitism: The fictional volksmoeder in South African novels, 1920s-1940sPretorius,Sian E. Poor whites poverty women volksmoeder literary texts cultural history novels fiction and non-fiction Afrikaans literature Carnegie Commission The phenomenon of the "poor white" social class dominated much of the academic, media and entertainment spheres for the first half of the twentieth century. This article examines poor white women as depicted in both fiction and non-fiction in South African literature and demonstrates that there is a certain overlap in their depiction. By combining the two types of literature it shows that selected novels, specifically those written during the first half of the twentieth century by authors from the Realist genre, may be considered cultural historical sources in their own right - in terms of portraying the daily lives and struggles of poor white women trying to fit into a male-constructed ideology. As a rather marginalised sector, poor-white women, are examined in terms of the volksmoeder concept and attention is given to how the novels redefined this term.Historical Association of South AfricaHistoria v.64 n.1 20192019-05-01journal articletext/htmlhttp://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0018-229X2019000100004en
institution SCIELO
collection OJS
country Sudáfrica
countrycode ZA
component Revista
access En linea
databasecode rev-scielo-za
tag revista
region África del Sur
libraryname SciELO
language English
format Digital
author Pretorius,Sian E.
spellingShingle Pretorius,Sian E.
Poor whitism: The fictional volksmoeder in South African novels, 1920s-1940s
author_facet Pretorius,Sian E.
author_sort Pretorius,Sian E.
title Poor whitism: The fictional volksmoeder in South African novels, 1920s-1940s
title_short Poor whitism: The fictional volksmoeder in South African novels, 1920s-1940s
title_full Poor whitism: The fictional volksmoeder in South African novels, 1920s-1940s
title_fullStr Poor whitism: The fictional volksmoeder in South African novels, 1920s-1940s
title_full_unstemmed Poor whitism: The fictional volksmoeder in South African novels, 1920s-1940s
title_sort poor whitism: the fictional volksmoeder in south african novels, 1920s-1940s
description The phenomenon of the "poor white" social class dominated much of the academic, media and entertainment spheres for the first half of the twentieth century. This article examines poor white women as depicted in both fiction and non-fiction in South African literature and demonstrates that there is a certain overlap in their depiction. By combining the two types of literature it shows that selected novels, specifically those written during the first half of the twentieth century by authors from the Realist genre, may be considered cultural historical sources in their own right - in terms of portraying the daily lives and struggles of poor white women trying to fit into a male-constructed ideology. As a rather marginalised sector, poor-white women, are examined in terms of the volksmoeder concept and attention is given to how the novels redefined this term.
publisher Historical Association of South Africa
publishDate 2019
url http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0018-229X2019000100004
work_keys_str_mv AT pretoriussiane poorwhitismthefictionalvolksmoederinsouthafricannovels1920s1940s
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