Example drama dissertation topic 9:

An analysis of South African theatre before and after apartheid’ 1963-2003.

Using newspaper reviews’ posters’interviews’ and diaries of the period’ this dissertation charts the changing nature of theatre in South Africa over a critical period in the nation’s history. A fascinating dissertation that combines an understanding of drama’ politics and the every-day lives of those affected by institutional racism’ this is a cross-disciplinary study that supplements existing secondary data. The paper does not focus purely on theatre that sought to teach about the rule of apartheid’ but also on theatre that entertained thousands of South Africans’ black or white’ in English’ Afrikaans’ Zulu’ Xhosa’ or any of South Africa’s seven other state languages. Further consideration is given to the South African theatre groups that toured internationally during the study period.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Hauptfleisch’ T. (1989).Citytalk’ Theatretalk: Dialect’ dialogue and multilingual theatre in South Africa. English in Africa’ 16(1)’ pp. 71-91.
• Kruger’ L. (1999). The drama of South Africa: plays’ pageants and publics since 1910. London: Routledge.
• Tomaselli’ K. G. (1981). The semiotics of alternative theatre in South Africa.Critical Arts’ 2(1)’ pp. 14-33.