Browsing by Author "Meeran, Jean"

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    The Djinn
    (2003) Meeran, Jean
    The Djinn is the final film in the series “Bunnychow Memoirs". This series consists of five feature films, three of which I wrote over the course of my Honours and Masters Degrees in English language and Literature and later, Masters in Film Theory and Practice. Two films in the series, namely “Babelgirl" and "Meatfood" were not written by me, but by Zinaid Meeran, but l shall mention them here so as to give a fuller description of the progression of the series. These films depict South African life within the 'Bunnychow Culture' spanning a period of three decades. The 'Bunnychow World‘ is a world in which traditional notions of identity are subverted and transcended. Race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality - all are turned on their heads in the realm of the Bunnychow. The films depict the experiences of a motley collection of young Muslims in South Africa, ranging from the early eighties to the beginning of the 21st century. Each film can and does stand alone, as a distinct entity, but all are linked by the common themes of the characters' identity struggles with race, gender, sexuality and ethnicity within the context of the massive and powerful entity that is Islam. The series is built on a progression and eventual resolution of the main themes, using as a vehicle the changing political, spiritual and social trends during these three decades, and the psychology of growing up of the characters. "P-I-G" is about a child's desire against politicised religious fanaticism. "The Concubine" handles forbidden teenage sexuality. “Babelgirl" (written by Zinaid Meeran) shows the attempted taming of a child's freedom from ethnicity, and a women's tussle with her own feminism. “Meatfood" (also by Zinaid Meeran) resolves the horror of racist alienation and psychological self destruction. Finally, "The Djinn" looks at the reconciliation of religious and personal identity through a magical spiritual freedom. In the case of "The Djinn" the relationship between a human and a djinn, and between the djinn world and the human world, catapults the thematic struggles of the previous films, into an otherworldly context. This process symbolises the ultimate subversion, and the final resolution of the themes. Moreover the motif of Bonanza Fruiterers, a takeaway specialising in bunnychow, and the brushing up of each of the protagonists with these bunnychows appears in each of the movies. The movies, in other words, are all linked by the same motif, primarily, the urgent, silly, celebrated cultural icon of the Bunnychow. This dish, essential to the South African urban experience, is of course, a half loaf of bread with the insides scooped out and the resulting cavity filled with curry, insanely hot and floating in oil.
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    Emerging identities in contemporary South Africa : six individual identity narratives from central Cape Town high schools
    (2008) Jones, Sarah; Meeran, Jean
    This research is an interdisciplinary, qualitative study of youth identity in two coeducational secondary schools with diverse student populations, in central Cape Town. Combining sociological and psychological perspectives, it seeks to understand how young South Africans are making sense of their place in the world, and in the history of their country, through exploring the way in which identities are being constructed on the site of the individual. It seeks to identify what discursive and imaginative resources young South Africans are drawing upon in the construction of their identities, how the (racialised) discourses from the past are working through them, and how they are negotiating new ways-of-being. Discourse analysis was combined with narrative methods; the former determined the discursive environment in which the students are embedded, and the latter investigated how individuals are positioned within this environment, and how they interact with this positioning. Focus groups in the schools formed the first phase of the research, followed by intensive individual interviews with six key participants. In order to understand the complexity of identity processes, the identity narratives of six individuals are the main focus of this research. Narrative methods were used to interrogate actors' own meanings in the construction of their identities, and a principal concern was to explore how participants understood, and narrated, their own identities. The intersubjective, embodied, and imaginative construction of identities was incorporated into the research. What became apparent was the way in which racialised discourses continue to dominate the post-apartheid landscape. However, racial signifiers are becoming increasingly confused, and students are resisting the positions to which they are being called. These individuals are negotiating their way through complex fields of meaning to generate new identities and ways-of-belonging that subvert former categories.