부산대학교 도서관

Summary: My research examines how and why national communities can emerge from post-conflict situations, specifically in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. My dissertation focuses on a central question: how and why do former aggressors in negotiated transitions come to feel that they belong to a single, national unit? I argue that in the post-apartheid era, narratives of racialized belonging and opposition reinforce the contentious identities of the anti-apartheid struggle. These identities are reinforced through the politics of space, language, political parties, historical interpretation and performance. Consequently, such identities threaten the project of building a South African nation and the creation of sustainable and democratic forms of opposition. My explanation is developed from interviews and ethnographic data collected during a year of fieldwork in South Africa, with the support of a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Institute for International Education.