Journal of Literary Studies : Aspects of South African Literary Studies : Special Issue (07/07/2010)

Introduction

2010-07-06T05:20:58Z

Author: Oliphant, Andries Walter
Vol 19 Issue 3 & 4
Publication: 2003
Page: p.234-236

Nonidentity and reciprocity in conceptualising South African literary studies

2010-07-06T05:20:58Z

Author: Oliphant, Andries Walter
Vol 19 Issue 3 & 4
Publication: 2003
Page: p.237-254

"The Foot Does Not Sniff" : imagining the post-anti-apartheid intellectual

2010-07-06T05:20:58Z

Author: Titlestad, Michael Kissack, Mike
Vol 19 Issue 3 & 4
Publication: 2003
Page: p.255-270
Abstract: The South African literary institution is engaged in an examination of both its role in the history of apartheid and its potential futures. Originating in Edward Said's search for an alternative to a "politics of blame", this article considers recent attempts to explore the possibility of "secular interpretation" in (and of) the South African context. Leon de Kock's trope of "the seam" and Mark Sanders's notion of "complicity" are considered. We characterise both as postdialectical descriptions of the interconnections that define South African (multivalent) being and mark its inscription. Further, we suggest that their postdialectical turn, despite the authors' primary concern with the history of identity and historiography, advocates a persuasive mode of scholarship for engaging contemporary South African identity.
Leaving the domain of scholarly debate, we turn to a literary representation of the contemporary South African intellectual. We look at the figure of Camagu in Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness (2000) in the belief that he, caught as he is between contending cults of interpretation, embodies something of the practice of secular critique sought by Said, De Kock, and Sanders. Through Camagu, we maintain, it is possible for us to describe aspects of the dilemma of the "post-anti-apartheid" intellectual as well as the potential of a nondialectical engagement with both our past and our present.
Abstract: Die Suid-Afrikaanse literêre instelling is gemoeid met 'n ondersoek na die rol van die geskiedenis van apartheid en sy potensiële toekomste. Hierdie artikel, wat sy oorsprong het in Said se soeke na 'n alternatief vir 'n "politiek van blaam", oorweeg resente pogings om die moontlikheid van "sekulêre interpretasie" in (en van) die Suid- Afrikaanse konteks te ondersoek. Leon de Kock se uitdrukking, nl. die "las" ("the seam") en Mark Sanders se idee van komplisiteit word oorweeg. Ons karakteriseer albei as postdialektiese beskrywings van die interkonneksies wat die Suid-Afrikaanse (multivalente) wese definieer en sy inskripsie kenskets. Verder suggereer ons dat hulle postdialektiese keerpunt, ten spyte van die outeurs se primêre saak met die geskiedenis van identiteit en historiografie, 'n oortuigende modus van vakkundigheid voorstaan om die Suid-Afrikaanse identiteit aan te neem.
Ons laat vaar die wetenskaplike debat en wend ons tot 'n literêre voorstelling van die kontemporêre Suid-Afrikaanse intellektueel. Ons beskou die figuur Camagu in Zakes Mda se The Heart of Redness (2000) in die mening dat hy, vasgevang soos hy is tussen strydende kultusse van interpretasie, iets van die praktyk van sekulêre kritiek wat deur Said, De Kock, en Sanders nagestreef word, verpersoonlik. Ons voer aan dat dit deur Camagu vir ons moontlik is om aspekte van die dilemma van die "post-anti- apartheid" intellektueel en ook die potensiaal van 'n nie-dialektiese verbintenis met sowel ons verlede as ons hede te beskryf.

Reading against race : J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace, Justin Cartwright's White Lightning and Ivan Vladislavić's The Restless Supermarket

2010-07-06T05:20:58Z

Author: Marais, Mike
Vol 19 Issue 3 & 4
Publication: 2003
Page: p.271-289
Abstract: In this essay, I argue that the treatment of race that one finds in J.M Coetzee's Disgrace (1999), Justin Cartwright's White Lightning (2002) and Ivan Vladislavić's The Restless Supermarket (2001), is premised on a recognition of the discursive inscription of the category of race in culture. These novels ponder the implications of the cultural basis of this trope by asking, for instance, whether nonracialism is a possibility that is open to the individual in a social context in which discourses of race prevail and, if not, how the individual may counter them. My essay examines not only the ways in which the novels under consideration articulate these questions, but also how they respond to them through a foregrounding of the culturally determined nature of reading.
Abstract: In hierdie artikel voer ek aan dat die behandeling van ras wat aangetref word in J.M.Coetzee se Disgrace (1999), Justin Cartwright se White Lightning (2002) en Vladislavić se The Restless Supermaket (2001) van die vooronderstelling van 'n erkenning van die diskursiewe inskripsie van die kategorie ras in kultuur uitgaan. Hierdie romans oorweeg die implikasies van die kulturele basis van hierdie troop deur byvoorbeeld te vra of nierassehaat 'n moontlikheid is wat oop is vir die individu in 'n sosiale konteks waarin diskoers oor ras algemeen is, en indien nie, hoe die individu dit kan teenwerk. My artikel ondersoek nie slegs die wyses waarop tersaaklike romans hierdie vrae artikuleer nie, maar ook hoe hulle reageer op hierdie vrae deur die kultureel bepaalde aard van interpretasie op die voorgrond te bring.

Postcolonial ecologies and the gaze of animals : reading some contemporary Southern African narratives

2010-07-06T05:20:58Z

Author: Woodward, Wendy
Vol 19 Issue 3 & 4
Publication: 2003
Page: p.290-315
Abstract: This essay is located within the new field of Animal Studies, and foregrounds literary representations of animals within a historicised culture, while stressing that ecologies are inseparable from politics and culture. Three southern African writers, Mda, Vera and Couto, contradict colonial discursivities about nature in their postcolonial texts. Their representations of human-animal relationships will be discussed, to some extent, in relation to Derridean conceptualising of the animal gaze and the human response to being addressed by an animal. But because Derrida has animals as "the absolute other" the writers implicitly interrogate his theorising, for he cannot acknowledge what Adams calls "relational epistemologies". African knowledges, as Mda and Vera represent them, construct such epistemologies for humans along with cattle, horses and "wild" animals. Couto, contradictorily, represents the repercussions of a breakdown of such epistemologies because of violence and poverty. Poland has humans responding to the literal animal gaze, as well as engaging extensively with African knowledges of cattle.
Abstract: Hierdie artikel val binne die veld Dierestudies, en plaas literêre voorstellings van diere binne 'n gehistoriseerde kultuur, terwyl dit beklemtoon dat ekologieë onlosmaaklik van politiek en kultuur is. Drie skrywers van suidelike Afrika, Mda, Vera en Couto, weerspreek koloniale diskursiwiteit omtrent die natuur in hulle postkoloniale tekste. Hulle voorstellings van mens-dier verhoudings sal bespreek word, in 'n sekere mate, in verhouding tot die Derrideaanse konseptualisering van die dier se blik en die mens se respons daarop om deur 'n dier aangespreek te word. Maar omdat Derrida diere as die "absolute ander" daarstel, ondervra die skrywers sy teoretisering, want hy kan nie toegee vir wat Adams noem "verhoudings-epistemologieë" nie. Afrika-begrippe, soos Mda en Vera hulle voorstel, konstrueer hierdie epistemologieë vir diere tesame met beeste, perde en "wilde" diere. Couto, daarenteen, stel die reperkussies voor van 'n ineenstorting van hierdie epistemologieë as gevolg van geweld en armoede. Poland stel mense daar wat reageer op die letterlike blik van die dier, en ekstensief Afrika-begrippe van beeste aanneem.

Appropriating space and transcending boundaries in The Africa House by Christina Lamb and Ways of Dying by Zakes Mda

2010-07-06T05:20:58Z

Author: Wenzel, Marita
Vol 19 Issue 3 & 4
Publication: 2003
Page: p.316-330
Abstract: The appropriation of space and construction of shelter is part of the human endeavour to conceptualise being in and of the world. Places are defined spaces that serve as points of orientation, with the implication that space exists where humans are and vice versa. Houses, in particular, feature as places or sites that occupy and define personal space; they are not only adapted to a person's lifestyle and indicative of his/her identity but also serve as metaphors of certain periods and value systems. A comparison of The Africa House (2000) by Christina Lamb and Ways of Dying (1995) by Zakes Mda explores the concept of houses as constructs of identity and illustrates how they could be perceived to identify and reflect the cultural boundaries and imaginative worlds of their periods of origin and authors.
Abstract: Die toe-eiening van ruimte en oprigting van skuilings vorm deel van die menslike poging om sy/haar bestaan in en verbintenis tot die wêreld te begryp. Plekke vorm duidelik omlynde ruimtes wat dien as oriënteringspunte, met die veronderstelling dat ruimte bestaan waar mense is en ook andersom. Huise word spesifiek as plekke of terreine beskou wat persoonlike ruimte beset en definieer; hulle word nie slegs aangepas by 'n persoon se leefstyl en is betekenend van sy/haar identiteit nie, maar dien ook as metafore van spesifieke periodes en waardesisteme. 'n Vergelykende studie van The Africa House (2000) deur Christina Lamb en Ways of Dying (1995) deur Zakes Mda, verken die konsep van huise as konstruksies van identiteit en dui aan hoe hulle terselfdertyd interpreteer kan word om die kulturele grense en denkbeeldige wêrelde van hulle tye van oorsprong, en hulle skrywers te reflekteer.

Deconstructing empire in Joseph Conrad and Zakes Mda

2010-07-06T05:20:58Z

Author: Sewlall, Harry
Vol 19 Issue 3 & 4
Publication: 2003
Page: p.331-344
Abstract: The publication of Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness in 2000, almost a century after Conrad's Heart of Darkness, is not only redolent of its precursor in a titular sense, but also in its contingent and contiguous themes. Viewed from a postcolonial/postmodern perspective, both texts may be regarded as subversive offerings which disrupt colonial configurations of subjectivity. The degree to which Conrad and Mda succeed in deconstructing empire depends on the conditions of the historical production of their respective texts. Located within a modernist sensibility, Heart of Darkness, lacking the deictic in Mda's title, captures a historical moment of existential crisis in a manner that is simultaneously disruptive of colonial subjectivity and complicit with it, although in a characteristically ambiguous and inconclusive way. Set in the next millennium, The Heart of Redness continues the task of destabilising empire begun by Conrad, but this time through a revisionist reading of history, combining elements of realism with magic. Whilst Mda's deconstruction of Western colonialism is unambiguous owing to the writer's positioning in a postapartheid South Africa, his novel sardonically problematises another brand of colonialism, that of the enriched elite in government structures.
Abstract: Die publikasie van Zakes Mda se The Heart of Redness in 2000, bykans 'n eeu na Conrad se Heart of Darkness, herinner nie alleen aan sy voorganger in 'n titulêre sin nie, maar ook aan sy kontingente en aanliggende temas. Vanuit 'n post-koloniale/postmoderne perspektief kan albei tekste beskou word as subversiewe aanbiedings wat koloniale konfigurasies van subjektiwiteit ontwrig. Die mate waarin Conrad en Mda daarin slaag om empire te dekonstrueer hang af van die omstandighede van die historiese produksie van hulle onderskeie tekste. Gelokaliseer in 'n modernistiese ontvanklikheid, en by gebreke aan die deiktiese in Mda se titel, gee Heart of Darkness 'n historiese moment van eksistensiële krisis weer op 'n wyse wat koloniale subjektiwiteit terselfdertyd omvergooi en ook daaraan aandadig is, ofskoon op 'n kenmerkend dubbelsinnige en onoortuigende manier. Geplaas in die volgende millennium, sit The Heart of Redness die taak voort wat deur deur Conrad begin is om empire te destabiliseer - maar hierdie keer deur 'n revisionistiese lees van geskiedenis, en deur elemente van realisme en die magiese te kombineer. Waar Mda se dekonstruksie van Westerse kolonialisme ondubbelsinnig is as gevolg van sy plasing in 'n postapartheid Suid-Afika, problematiseer sy roman sardonies 'n ander skandteken van kolonialisme, dié van die verrykte elite in regeringstrukture.

Translating Triomf : the shifting limits of "ownership" in literary translation, or : never translate anyone but a dead author

2010-07-06T05:20:58Z

Author: De Kock, Leon
Vol 19 Issue 3 & 4
Publication: 2003
Page: p.345-359
Abstract: This essay teases out the paradoxes inherent in competing notions of (1) authorial "ownership" of a text and of its modes of signification in acts of translation, (2) the claims upon that text by a translator, and (3) the senses in which imaginative texts are "co-owned" by readers, specialists, critics, teachers, reviewers and editors. Based on anecdotal evidence - in this instance, an incomplete case-history of translating the Afrikaans novel Triomf into English - the essay builds an argument about the nature of translation in more general terms.
Abstract: Hierdie artikel pluis die paradokse uit wat inherent is aan die kompeterende begrippe van (1) outeurs "eienaarskap" van die teks en van die betekenisgewing daaraan deur vertaling, (2) die aansprake op die teks deur die vertaler, en (3) die sin waarin oorspronklike tekse "medebesit" word deur lesers, spesialiste, kritici, leerkragte, resensente en redakteurs. Aan die hand van anekdotiese gronde - in hierdie geval 'n gedeeltelike gevalbeskrywing van die vertaling van die Afrikaanse roman Triomf in Engels - voer die essay 'n argument aan omtrent die aard van vertaling in meer algemene terme.