Food consumption practices and social identity construction in South African soapies: a semiotic remediation discourse analysis of skeem saam
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Date
2024
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Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
Soap operas are multifunctional media discourses which serve as entertainment and representation of society and they can educate and influence society. Through the soap operas,
the lived experiences of people are told. However, they also enhance or influence and somehow challenge the perspectives of the audience in relation to ways of life and identity performance. As storytelling involves telling or rather portraying the lived experiences of people, soap operas are common representational discourses of society. In other words, lived experiences are reenacted and repurposed to mirror reality. South Africa is a rainbow nation, and it embraces multiculturalism. In this post-apartheid era, multiculturalism is evident in South African soapies, ranging from actors and actresses from different ethnic and racial backgrounds, languages, ways of life, different fashion trends and food consumption practices. As such, different semiotics signal ways of life and identity performances. Food is one of the common semiotics that are used to construct food discourses, practices, and identities in the South African soapies. Whilst there are several studies that have been conducted in relation to media discourse influences in identity performance related to fashion
trends, ethnic language backgrounds and monetary status, there are very few that focus on food as a meaning making resource. Thus, this study focuses on Skeem Saam, a South African soap opera aiming to reveal the kind of food related semiotics that are compiled in recreating the social meaning, identities and life of South African society and the implications of such
performances to the broader society and food consumption practices. It applies a qualitative method for an interpretive analysis and the semiotic remediation discourse analysis as the
theoretical framework to make sense of the data. The significance of this study is to understand how identity is constructed through food related semiotics in a democratic South Africa through a soap opera and the implications of such identity performances in building a diverse and
equitable society. Food is one of the common semiotics that are used to construct food discourses, practices, and
identities in the South African soapies. Whilst there are several studies that have been
conducted in relation to media discourse influences in identity performance related to fashion
trends, ethnic language backgrounds and monetary status, there are very few that focus on food
as a meaning making resource. Thus, this study focuses on Skeem Saam, a South African soap
opera aiming to reveal the kind of food related semiotics that are compiled in recreating the
social meaning, identities and life of South African society and the implications of such
performances to the broader society and food consumption practices. It applies a qualitative
method for an interpretive analysis and the semiotic remediation discourse analysis as the
theoretical framework to make sense of the data. The significance of this study is to understand
how identity is constructed through food related semiotics in a democratic South Africa through
a soap opera and the implications of such identity performances in building a diverse and
equitable society. Food is one of the common semiotics that are used to construct food discourses, practices, and
identities in the South African soapies. Whilst there are several studies that have been
conducted in relation to media discourse influences in identity performance related to fashion
trends, ethnic language backgrounds and monetary status, there are very few that focus on food
as a meaning making resource. Thus, this study focuses on Skeem Saam, a South African soap
opera aiming to reveal the kind of food related semiotics that are compiled in recreating the
social meaning, identities and life of South African society and the implications of such
performances to the broader society and food consumption practices. It applies a qualitative
method for an interpretive analysis and the semiotic remediation discourse analysis as the
theoretical framework to make sense of the data. The significance of this study is to understand
how identity is constructed through food related semiotics in a democratic South Africa through
a soap opera and the implications of such identity performances in building a diverse and
equitable society. Thus, this thesis shows that food is an important identity signifier in such a way that through
food the socioeconomic status of individuals is evident. The soap opera centres mainly on two
households, the Maputla and Ntuli. Through the food practices of both families, their social
status is evident, one family’s socioeconomic status is high whereas the other it is in the middle
respectively. Food as a semiotic material allows an understanding of cultural identity and people's lifestyles. The findings also show that unlike other studies which show semiotic
resources like fashion, language and other artefacts reveal diversity in the multicultural context, food as a semiotic resource, in this case, shows a lack of diversity as the producers of the soap opera seems to promote English diets and South African local food and recipes are hardly portrayed. The representation of food as a semiotic resource does not go hand in hand with the people’s cultural practices which include eating practices.
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Keywords
Soap opera, Food, Foodscapes, Semiotic remediation, Food Consumption