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CHAPTER 2 discourses other than nationalistic ones were present in informal sources such as magazines.
Ideology as a historical subject
A brief history of ideological analysis
In this section. the development of ideological analysis as a methodology is sketched broadly. In any such sketch. the work done by two key figures in the study of ideology, L. Althusser34 and A. Gramsci 35 should be taken into account.
Althusser analysed society in terms of infrastructures, the basic economic structures through which a society functions; and superstructures. which are made up of the state. laws and ideology. He saw ideology as being produced by what he called ideological state apparatuses, such as educational institutions. the family, churches. and the like. The function of these apparatuses is to disseminate the ruling ideology, which. according to Marx is » … the system of the ideas and representatior~ which dominate the mind of a man or a social group ». 36 Ideology is used to perpetuate the ideas of the ruling classes. but it is taught in such a way that the s~Jjects being taught are not consciously aware that they are imbibing certain values and rituals. Thus all of us are always « inside » deo l 3 7
Althusser sees education and the family as being crucial to creating ideology in the twentieth century. These two apparatuses are private. but play a powerful role in perpetuating ideologies. They’work together with other more repressive apparatuses, such as the police force. which are public. Many ideologies identified by this thesis are linked to the private apparatuses of family and education, as will be seen in later chapters.
Antonio Gramsci elaborated Althusser’s position through defining ideology as « the terrain on which men move, acquire consciousness of their position, struggle » . 38 For Gramsci, ideology is basically the creating of consciousness. Gramsci was the first to acknowledge that ideology is not only a false consciousness, which was the tradit·ional Marxist position, but is also materialised in practise. This means that acticns can be classed as ideology which is « lived out ».
During the 1970s. social scientists began to analyse the world in terms of language, increasingly arguing that language constructs the social world. A methodology known as « discourse analysis » developed: a discourse being « a system of statements which contructs an object. » 41 Discourse analysis deliberately systematises texts in order to discover how discourses reproduce and transform the world. 42
Discourses and ideologies both represent transpersonal systems of meaning and reveal social value systems and power relations: ideology could be said to work through discourses. « The operation of ideology on human life basically involves the constitution and patterning of how human beings live their lives as conscious. reflecting initiators of acts in a structured, meaningful world » .43 Discourses may be likened to patterns which structure our lives. Discourse analysis reveals these patterns.
In the main. historians have concentrated on public methods of coercion, such as laws and the actions of governments. Ideology has been studied where it plays a public role in politics. However. the historical value of more informal discourses should not be overlooked. The analysis of such discourses can reveal societal norms and power relations; or divisions of race. class and gender which can work together to facilitate people who constantly decode and transfer their meanings. « Ideas are maintained not in the vacuum of the abstract, but through their active use: Values exist not in things but in their transferenct::. « 48 Ideology is thus a crucial part of the workings of any society,and as such falls squarely into the realm of history.
Gender and ideology
This thesis explores the role gender plays in Afrikaner discourses, utilizing work produced on ideology and gender as a theoretical background.
Some work has recently been done on women’s role in nationalist ideologies. 50 In this work women have been shown to play a crucial role in perpetuating ideologies such as nationalism. Women are important as bearers and teachers of customs and ideas and can be sa1d to signify and reproduce the symbolic and legal boundaries of a group, and act as cultural carriers for that group.
In examining nationalistic ideologies, it becomes apparent that women and their behaviour are used to draw distinctions between one ethnic group and another. In order to keep women withir the prescribed ideological boundaries. most nationalisms operate within a strict moral code, which often focuses specifically on women. Women may not be allowed to have sexual relations with members of other ethnic groups. and legal marriage with other groups may only be tolerated on condition that any children resulting from the marriage be recognised as members of the woman’s ethnic grouping. Women are thus required to dress and behave « properly », to give birth to children within legitimate marriages. and so to perpetuate tho « natural » nationalist order.
Women who transgress the boundaries determined by ideology are a threat to the entire nationalist system, and are condemned in the strongest moral terms. so as to dissuade other transgressors. If a woman does not behave in the appropriate sexual way, she and her children may be removed from the community. Women are clearly the reproducers of ethnic groups, both biologically and ideologically. 51
Chapter One – Beauties and the Beast: The theoretucai background
1.to Afrikaner women and ideology
2.Other relevant work
3. Contempor~rry writing aboOJt women
4. Gender and history on South Afruca
5. Early writing about Afrikcanerr women
6. The theoretical approach to genderr n.l!Sed fin this study
Chapter Two – Goldilocks and the Three Bealis: The Construction of Ideology in Afrikaans Magaznnes 1948 Q 1949
1 Analysis of ideologies in women’s magazines
2. Education
3. Analysis of ideology surrounding women in the church ,publication Die Kerkbode
4. Conclusions
5 Magazines during 1958
Chapter Four – Alice Through the Looking Glass: Afrikaner Middle Class Womenas Organisations and Their Ideologies: 1948 and 1958
1. Aims and scope of the chapter
2. Placing the discourse in contest: Some background to the Afrikaans community in J·’)hannesburg
3. Analysis of the literature put out by the Suid Afrikaanse Vrouefederasie in 1948 and 1958
4. « Lived ideology » an analysis of interviews with middle class Afrikaner women
5. A tentati’Je portrait of Afrikaner middle class women
Chapter Five – The End of the Rainbow: Conclusions
1. Discourses about Afrikaner middle class women prevalent during 1948, 1949 and 1958
2. The role of ideology in history: Some comments and observations
3. The importance of gender as a historical category
4. The end of the rainbow
Appendix
Bibliography
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