Abstract
In South Africa, Greece, Rome: Classical Confrontations, Grant Parker (2018:7) observes that: “Far from being a one-sided, unchanging set of material, classical antiquity has fulfilled very different social roles at different times”. Interestingly, despite the oppressive patriarchal foundation of classical mythology, its broad scope lends itself to contemporary adaptation. Classical myths might then be perceived less as static constructs than as stories which offer material amenable to re-definition through feminist re-telling (Zajko 2007:397). Since ancient writers imbued the concerns of their times into their mythmaking, so too can feminist adaptations invest them with modern-day ideologies (Zajko 2007:397). The primary objective of this research is to ascertain how and why a selection of South African women artists are negotiating classical imagery and an inherited classical past within their practices, in a search for, and the representation of, post-apartheid femininities. For the purpose of this investigation I focus on selected works by visual artists Christine Dixie, Minnette Vári, Diane Victor and Nandipha Mntambo...
Ph.D. (Art History)