| Popis: |
In light of the recent socio-political transformation in South Africa, the article examines whether post-apartheid society offers young adults new and different possibilities for constructing their identity, or whether ‘race’ still constitutes a central defining feature of their representations of Self and Other ? It draws on findings from a study that examined the self-articulated self-conceptions and future identity aspirations and threats of 542 undergraduate South African students of differing socio-historically constructed ‘cultural’ and ‘linguistic’ backgrounds. Respondents’ open-ended self-identity responses were content-analyzed and examined in light of their reported desire to stay in South Africa, and their perceptions of being able to succeed (both personally and professionally) as compared to other South Africans. The findings indicate that while respondents rarely made overt use of ‘racial’, ‘cultural’ and national markers in their present and future self-articulated self-conceptions, their future identity aspirations and threats contained indirect references to an apartheid past and the transition to a non-racial democracy. Moreover, an empirically derived grouping variable—‘language orientation’—summarizing the use of one (monolingual) or more (bilingual or multilingual) of the colonial (English and Afrikaans), vernacular or immigrant languages across family, social and university life-contexts, was found to reliably distinguish between the self-reported self-conceptions, desire to stay in South Africa, and perceived opportunities to succeed of previously advantaged and disadvantaged South Africans. These findings are discussed in light of their implications for understanding identity dynamics and the politics of self-representation in post-apartheid South Africa. |
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