Playing with anxiety: black middle-class masculinities in the humorous works of Fred Khumalo and Ndumiso Ngcobo. Issue 1 (2nd January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ndlovu, Thabisani; Dlulani, Increment Andile
• Is Part Of: African identities. Volume 20:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 42
• Page End: 56
• Publication Date: 2022-01-02
• Subjects: Black middle class -- masculinity -- South Africa -- Zuluness -- humour; National characteristics, African -- Periodicals; Africans -- Periodicals; African diaspora -- Periodicals; Africa -- Civilization -- Periodicals; 305.896
• DOI: 10.1080/14725843.2020.1805297
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1472-5843

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Studies of the black middle class in South Africa, particularly imaginations and performances of class or 'classing', can be enriched by other disciplines outside social science. Cultural products that evince self-expressions of black middle classness are a fertile source. To that end, this article uses an intersectional approach to explore middle-class masculinity in the personal humorous essays of Ndumiso Ngcobo and Fred Khumalo. While the two authors celebrate hybridity occasioned by the intersections of race, class and Zuluness, they nonetheless betray a sense of anxiety regarding their masculinity. The unease points to the constant change in masculinities, in the same way that humour itself is deployed to handle difficult situations with a view to suggest change or other possibilities of living.