Gauteng Doctoral School

The primary research question in my study is what extent resources such as letters contribute to the narrative in biography?. With reference to JC Kannemeyer’s biography Leroux: ‘n Lewe and Charles Bukowski by Barry Miles. The secondary research questions are: What roles do fact and fiction play in the construction of a biography? When can letters be trusted as the truth. Amd therefore as a vehicle, so to speak, to convey an accurate account? To what extent does an author have the right to manipulate or use official / authentic documents such as letters to complement his / her work of fiction? Seeing as the biographer makes a selection of letters he / she uses in the telling of the life story, does this not mean that the biographer inadvertently becomes a creator of a specific storyline?

Despite its enormous global lucrative charge, porn remains an under-researched topic in media studies, especially in Africa. Consumption theories which shed light on how people acquire, use and dispose of products (Aldridge 2003) can be used to explain the various ways people attain pornography and their motivations. In the context of South Africa, where pornography only became legal 20 years ago (1996), we still don’t have sufficient research that illuminates on the uses leading to the expansion of explicit media.

Post-Apartheid South Africa saw many communities attempt to negotiate anxieties of identity and belonging in the new cultural landscape that came along with democracy. The South African Indian community, in particular, has navigated issues of identity and belonging in a society largely informed by a black/white binary. They have done so in various ways.