Abstract
D.Litt. et Phil.
The Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) was founded in 1921 and dissolved in 1950. From the outset the party produced printed propaganda, including an official newspaper, pamphlets and leaflets, and a sizeable volume of this printed material survives. This study provides an account of the printed graphic propaganda produced by the CPSA by firstly describing the production, distribution, consumption and regulation thereof and secondly, by offering a focused examination of the representation and construction of identities in the images contained in the propaganda.
The approach taken in the study is informed by the view that meaning is constructed through the use of representational systems which can be analysed with the help of semiotics, iconography and archetypes. A framework for the study is developed by drawing on the work of a number of theorists, primarily from the field of cultural studies. The framework is then applied to the propaganda from each decade of the party’s existence, namely 1921 to 1929, 1930 to 1938 and 1939 to 1950. These time divisions are informed by the name changes of the party paper, which coincided with important changes in CPSA policy.
The description of the production, distribution, consumption and regulation of the printed propaganda during each time period is followed by an examination of the representation and construction of identities in the images which appear in the printed material. The images are examined according to their representational meaning, iconographical symbolism and iconological symbolism. This examination results firstly in the description of a number of figurative and abstract symbols, and secondly in the identification of various types of identities constructed in the imag-es, such as the image of the worker, comrade gentleman, the capitalist and the warrior. Some identities, for example the worker, recur in all three decades, whereas other identities appear during one decade, only to disappear during the next. Finally, the iconological symbolism of the images are analysed by drawing on Jung’s theory of archetypes of the collective unconscious, thereby offering a deeper and more speculative interpretation of the meaning of the images.