Red socks and purple rain: the political uses of colour in late apartheid South Africa
Journal Article
2011
Permanent link to this Item
Authors
Journal Title
Visual Communication
Link to Journal
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
SAGE
Publisher
University of Cape Town
License
Series
Abstract
This article explores the extent to which colour functions as an independent mode in a particular context and explores the culturally produced regularities in the uses of colour in this context. Drawing on a Hallidayan metafunctional view of text, we look at how colour instantiated systems of knowledge and belief (ideational function) and social relations and identities (interpersonal function) in South Africa during the last decade of the apartheid government. In this type of repressive socio-political context, colour was a less policed mode, and thus had different affordances to images and the verbal modes. We argue that colour can function as an independent mode under certain conditions, such as stringent press restrictions, where the use of colour in a range of media (clothing, flags, posters) can play a crucial role in communicating.
Description
This is a post-print of the published version of a SAGE Journal article available on: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470357211398437.
Reference:
Archer, A., Stent, S. 2011. Red socks and purple rain: the political uses of colour in late apartheid South Africa. Visual Communication.