Was It Something I Wore? Dress, Identity, Materiality

by Moletsane, Relebohile; Mitchell, Claudia; Smith, Ann

• ISBN13: 9780796923622
• ISBN10: 0796923620
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-03-01
• Publisher: HSRC Press

Summary

Acknowledging how people often wear their causes on their t-shirts, this exploration studies the construction and performance of personal and social identities through choices of traditional attire. The essays point to the significance of dress as material culture in social science researchnot only in their content but also in their focus on a variety of methodologies including memory work, visual studies, autoethnography, object biographies, and other forms of textual analysis. The title's framing question is central to the many inquiries the book raisesinquiries that challenge the sociopolitical status quo: To what extent does dress visually signify the construction of a chosen identity and a chosen performance? How does dress position the body and identity in different social and cultural spaces?and What is the role of dress in the constructions of schooling and contemporary childhood?Investigating these questions and more, this colorful study addresses a variety of pertinent social issues that confront communities in southern Africa.

Author Biography

Ann Smith is a doctoral supervisor at the University of the Witwatersrand, an adjunct professor at McGill University, and the managing editor of Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Claudia Mitchell is a James McGill Professor on the faculty of education at McGill University and an honorary professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). She is the coauthor of Just Who Do We Think We Are? and Reinventing Ourselves as Teachers. She lives in Montreal, Quebec. Relebohile Moletsane is a professor and the J. L. Dube Chair in Rural Education at UKZN. They are the coauthors of Methodologies for Mapping a Southern African Girlhood in the Age of Aids.