In:Singing, Speaking and Writing Politics: South African political discourses
Edited by Mirjana N. Dedaić
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 65] 2015
► pp. 169–199
‘Mother of the nation’
Representations of womanhood in the South African media
Published online: 30 October 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.65.08hun
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.65.08hun
This study uses Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics to analyse how South African media, including online comment sections, represent womanhood and motherhood, with reference to two prominent South African public figures, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and the late Albertina Sisulu, both often referred to as “the mother of the nation”. In addition, I show how readers participate in public debate, in this case reiterating dominant views of women and positioning traditional nurturing and self-sacrificing attributes as desirable.
Keywords: corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis, gender, media, South Africa, women
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