Showing papers in "Journal of Literary Studies in 2005"

Paradise regained and lost again : South African literature in the post-apartheid era : conference proceedings

Abstract: Summary This article surveys South African prose in English and Afrikaans published after 1994. With the first democratic elections a new era began. The political and social changes are obviously reflected in the prose that was written in the previous decade. There are striking thematic parallels between the literary works in English and Afrikaans. The demise of apartheid led to a euphoric mood but very soon a new realism set in. A number of works appeared in which history was rewritten. Not only the immediate apartheid past but also the earlier history of South Africa is highlighted. The past is demythologised and the previously hidden sides of history are exposed. Moreover a lot of attention is paid to the new South Africa. The old parameters are no longer valid. The whites have lost their political power. This realisation often leads to a crisis of identity. New rulers also introduce new customs. The changes which have taken place are not always regarded as improvements. And then there are all the othe...

Coetzee's Queer body

Abstract: Summary The first half of this essay explores the lineaments of dissident or queer desire which Coetzee's work traces post‐1989, almost as if in response to the “liberation” of the discourse of love that was meant to follow the fall of apartheid. In its second half the essay suggests that, far from being liberatory, queer desire in the later Coetzee, and especially in Elizabeth Costello (2004), baulks from an identification with otherness, especially where that otherness takes on womanly form, instead collaborating with misogyny.

Revisiting the canon and the literary tradition : a South African case study : conference proceedings

Abstract: Literary evolution is a process that occurs in every literary system. Due to the fact that literary systems do not merely exist, but come into being, it follows that they organise and protect themselves; changes therefore do not readily occur. Literary evolution cannot be described in neopositivistic terms and neither can possible changes be accurately predicted. The whole process of literary change is affected by intersystemic aspects as well as "extraneous factors" like historical events. It is customary to describe literary evolution as the succession of "streams", "movements" or "periods". A period can be described as a "regulative idea", a system of norms and conventions. In this study the above-mentioned terms are discussed and their interconnectedness explained. Shifts in the Afrikaans literary system of the past decades are subsequently described and possible explanations offered. Literere evolusie is 'n proses wat in elke literatuursisteem plaasvind. Omdat literere sisteme nie maar net bestaan nie, maar tot stand kom, is dit ook so dat hul sigself organiseer en beskerm, en derhalwe nie geredelik verander nie. Literere evolusie kan daarom nie bloot in neo-positivistiese terme verklaar of voorspel word nie en intersistemiese aspekte speel 'n ewe groot rol in literere evolusie as sogenaamde buitefaktore soos historiese gebeure. Dit is verder gebruiklik om literere evolusie te beskryf as die opeenvolging van "strome", "bewegings" of "periodes". Laasgenoemde is duidelik markeerbare norme- of konvensiesisteme. In hierdie studie word bovermelde terme eerstens bespreek en logies verbind. Vervolgens word verskuiwings in die Afrikaanse literatuursisteem van die afgelope dekades beskryf, en verklarings vir hierdie prosesse word aan die hand gedoen.

Materiality and the madness of reading: J.M. Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello as post‐apartheid text

Abstract: Summary Unlike the “situationsl metafiction” (Attwell 1993: 20) of J.M. Coetzee's earlier novels, whose imbrication in the political matrix of the late‐apartheid State has become a matter of critical orthodoxy, Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons (2003) rejects a South African emplacement for its writer‐protagonist and hereby seems to suspend questions relating to the positioning of this work within post‐apartheid literary culture. Coetzee's privileging of the transcultural, or formal aesthetic, dimensions of the work ratifies the normative exclusion of the historical master‐narrative in the name of universalism (Butler 2000). Yet, for all that it defensively forecloses the possibility of “post‐apartheid South Africa” being taken as its referent, I claim, “Lesson 8: At the Gate”, of Elizabeth Costello contains a persistent interrogation of the relations between representation and material embodiment that draws the text back ‐ despite itself ‐ into the semiotic matrix of South African literary culture, here ...

Torn between Islam and the other : South African novelists on cross-cultural relationships : conference proceedings

Abstract: In this essay the depiction of intimate relationships between Muslim and non-Muslim is analysed and discussed with reference to some present-day South African novels. The work of internationally known authors Achmat Dangor and Elsa Joubert, as well as that of the less-established but now prize-winning Rayda Jacobs, can be studied as portrayals of the personal and political conflicts ensuing from the relationships between people of opposing religions and cultures. Emotional and social insecurities, and the individual unease within a restrictive group environment, are recurring themes. All three writers portray their characters as part of a fragmented and hybrid society; one in which racial, cultural and religious diversity coexists warily. The concepts of "self" and "other" in this ambivalent post-colonial world are experienced as changing, uncertain and contradictory entities. The three authors can each be regarded as a representative of a different society, but together they are also voices contributing to the same discourse. The historical reality of the Muslim in Africa - whether as slave, trader, political activist or religious outsider - is translated into fictions where the brittle personal relationships also point to larger issues of rootlessness, multicultural relationships and the search for personal identity. Hierdie opstel gee verslag van 'n ondersoek na die uitbeelding van intieme verbintenisse tussen Moslem en nie-Moslem in die romans van drie bekende Suid- Afrikaanse outeurs: Achmat Dangor, Rayda Jacobs en Elsa Joubert. Die narratiewe kan gelees word as artikulasies van die persoonlike en politieke konflikte wat die verhouding tussen mense van botsende gelowe en kulture begelei. Emosionele en sosiale twyfel, en die individuele stryd binne die beperkinge van 'n voorskriftelike leefomgewing, is motiewe wat herhalend voorkom. In al drie romans word die karakters geplaas binne 'n gefragmenteerde, hibriede maatskappy; een waarin religieuse, kulturele en etniese diversiteit ongemaklik saambestaan. Die persepsies van "self" en "ander" in hierdie postkoloniale opset is veranderlik, onseker en teenstrydig. Die drie skrywers wat elkeen as verteenwoordigend van verskillende kulturele groeperings beskou kan word, neem deur hierdie romans aan dieselfde diskoers deel. Die historiese werklikheid van die Moslem in Afrika - as slaaf, handelaar, politieke aktivis of godsdienstige randfiguur - kry fiksioneel vorm in die persoonlike verhoudings wat heenwys na groter kwessies rondom identiteitsoeke en transkulturalisme.

Displacement in the literary texts of black Afrikaans writers in South Africa

Abstract: Summary This article focuses on the representation of physical displacements in literary texts by black Afrikaans writers. These representations can be seen against the background of a complex history of colonisation and decolonisation in South Africa. On the one hand the relatively young Afrikaans literature tells of the way in which a sense of place was established by European settlers and their descendants by representing the transformation of space into place through various processes of naming, mapping, description, story‐telling and mythologising; on the other hand Afrikaans literature also represents the various displacements suffered by the colonised peoples of South Africa. Attention is first given to the figurative displacement of the black Afrikaans writer with regards to the canon of Afrikaans literature and the possibility of reading the work of black Afrikaans writers as a “minor literature” (as defined by Deleuze and Guattari). The article then proceeds to discuss the physical displacements...

Reading in the in‐between: Pre‐scripting the “postscript” to Elizabeth Costello

Abstract: Summary By offering a close reading and analysis of “Postscript”, the text that concludes Coetzee's collection of “lessons” in his 2003 book Elizabeth Costello, in conjunction with Hofmannsthal's 1902 “Chandos Letter” (including brief reference to the Nobel Address “He and His Man"), the essay demonstrates the implications of palimpsestuous reading. Informed by Gerard Genette's study of the palimpsest as a mode of literary presentation particularly suited to poststructuralist understandings of the disassociation between author and protagonist, the essay argues, furthermore, that palimpsestuous writing articulates the conjunctive double of language and fiction as, philosophically speaking, the general and every single person's writing/reading as particular at the point where mutually historicising and historicised imaginings intersect along an elliptical axis connecting diachronic distance and synchronic proximity.

A woman thinking in dark times?: The absent presence of Hannah Arendt in J. M. Coetzee's “Elizabeth Costello and the problem of Evil”

Abstract: Summary This paper approaches Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello (2003), in particular the section entitled “Elizabeth Costello and the Problem of Evil” (originally published in Salmagundi 2003), as a complex narrative in which intellectual and philosophical ideas merge with storytelling to create an intertextual matrix. By means of a close reading of the aforementioned “lesson”, I aim to judge its contextualisation within a realm of intellectual and philosophical debates and thereby to reveal the influence of Hannah Arendt, who, I contend, emerges as one of the less obvious intertexts in a “novel” that is clearly celebrating intertextuality as a self‐reflexive, intellectual game. By examining the text as an intertext, I suggest, as one possibility, that Coetzee is presenting Elizabeth Costello as a latter‐day Hannah Arendt, a woman “thinking in dark times”. If that is perhaps too decisive a reading for a slippery writer like Coetzee, then at the very least, he seems to be in conversation with Arendt on such is...

Blood money : an examination of oral narratives concerning wealth-giving snakes in the career of Khotso Sethuntsa , with particular focus on their socioeconomic implications : conference proceedings

Abstract: Summary This article examines the oral narratives concerning the millionaire herbalist Khotso Sethuntsa's purported ownership of wealth‐giving snakes and his career as a seller of these magical serpents, a practice known as uthwala. It is argued that the uthwala narratives featuring Khotso Sethuntsa (hereafter referred to as the Khotso narratives) are shaped by the specific milieu from which they spring. Particular attention is paid to socioeconomic factors in this regard. The Khotso narratives provide a striking illustration of the way in which socioeconomic changes in South African society affected not only the material world but also perceptions of the indigenous spirit world. A number of other significant contextual aspects are taken into consideration, including the effect of Western religion on African belief systems and consequently, on indigenous oral narratives. This study also pays attention to the moral dimension of the Khotso narratives, examining the way in which these accounts can provide a ...

Disgraceful metafiction : intertextuality in the postcolony

Abstract: Summary My aim in this paper is to examine J.M. Coetzee's use of intertextuality in Disgrace (2002a), partly because many commentators have said something about some of the intertexts utilised in the novel, but nobody has made an attempt at a thoroughgoing analysis, particularly in terms of what intertextuality, or indeed postmodernism, means in postcolonialism today. I want to make the claim against those who see Disgrace as primarily a realist text that merely provides an avenue into discussing sociological issues in “the new South Africa” and that to read it in this way is to do a disservice to the novel, to Coetzee's views on the value of literature and the imagination, and perhaps even to the relationship between literature and the nation. Disgrace is an ostensibly realist text that consists of a chain of provocations tempting the reader into realist interpretations, but a more careful reading of the novel shows how intertextual it is, and how subtle its analysis of cultural history is. This metafict...

Suffering for a worthy cause? : the misplaced focus of Gibson's The Passion of the Christ : special topic : The Passion of the Christ

Abstract: Summary This contribution offers an ideological criticism of Gibson's The Passion of the Christ from the perspective of historical Jesus studies. It is argued that Gibson's funda‐mentalistic hermeneutics gives rise to at least two ethical concerns that need critical reflection: the charge of anti‐Semitism and the problematic doctrine of vicarious suffering. A social‐historical paradigm, informed by the humanities, is offered as alternative.

J.M. Coetzee's Dusklands: The meaning of suffering

Abstract: Summary With strong reference to the theoretical work of Gilles Deleuze, Antonin Artaud, and Friedrich Nietzsche, this article aims to understand J.M. Coetzee's Dusklands ([1974]1998) as a novel of relations. From the reader's initial difficulty in trying to reconcile the seemingly divergent constitutive narratives to its exploration of the (failed) relationships between subject and object, Self and Other, and the corporeality of the body and the incorporeality of the mind, Dusklands demands that the reader pay close attention to the sets of associations and connections that it establishes. And it is in this context that this article argues that Dusklands presents the narratives of two men who begin to experience the failure of such fundamental relationships: as they begin to uncontrollably oscillate between the ontological states of the known‐subject and the incomprehensible‐Other. Under such conditions, an analysis of the relationship between the body and the “event” of pain that circulates upon it reve...

The passion of The Passion - return of the public spectacle? : special topic : The Passion of the Christ

Abstract: Summary This article analyses presentations of violence in relation to historically specific regimes of truth. It suggests that Mel Gibson's film provides for an easy slippage between different orders of violence and truth, creating the possibility for the tortured body denuded of any relation to truth, to appear as sacrifice.

The passion of the Christ: Behind the mask of violence

Abstract: Summary The film The Passion of the Christ is discussed in terms of its possible provocative and hidden messages in the service of particular interest groups and political alliances. Violence is viewed as persuasive communication, and the possible psychological effects of such a search for power and dominance are illustrated. Opsomming Die film The Passion of the Christ word bespreek aan die hand van die moontlike provokerende en verborge boodskappe in diens van besondere belangegroepe en politieke alliansies. Geweld word as oorredingskommunikasie beskou, en moontlike sielkundige gevolge van so 'n soeke na mag en dominansie word geillustreer. The Passion of the Christ: Behind the Mask of Violence Many audience members have commented on the extreme violence which is depicted in the film The Passion of the Christ. Narratives of Christianity, Judaism and Islam provide pre-existing frameworks of meaning for the interpretation of such a film, and viewers have therefore been primed to be provoked and perturbed in certain ways. The violence in the film is languaged, given meaning, and may have the intensity to disrupt or strengthen social meaning and relations. Violence may be defined as "a significant event of empirical behaviour of groups or individuals that causes measurable damage or death to others" (Thornton 1995:1). Violent acts result in a wide range of individual, social and economic problems and trauma that affect well-being and mental and physical health. Life may be lost, family life disrupted, large groups displaced, and trauma induced at all levels of existence. In addition to such demonstrable outcomes, the meanings attributed to violence and its results give rise to submission, illusions of power, fear, outrage, and so on. Images and narratives about experienced and perceived violence contribute to the traumatic effects of violence. The behavioural and emotional effects of violence, and the extent to which incisive change occurs after an act of violence, are the results of how people talk about and interpret violence and its patterns of preceding and succeeding events. Clearly then, violence may serve as a form of persuasive communication. Violence may be an indicator "for an entire ecology of relationships" (Keeney 1983: 124), and a violent act provides communication to and about the social context in which it occurs (Keeney 1983). The violence in the Gibson film about the last days of the Christ may be a potent medium for altering or maintaining meaning in the narrative blueprints for life and world maps of viewers. Mel Gibson may be suspected of using violence to influence and even control the minds and memories of viewers. The film has evoked a wide range of responses and experiences. Some viewers were provoked to see offensive torture, exaggerated and sustained violence, explicit or implicit anti-Semitism, while others were transformed into realising the love of a God and fellow human beings. A Communicative Compromise If the violence in the film is viewed as a metaphor for a complex ecology of relationships and contexts, an "as if" scenario is represented in Figure 1. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] A communicative compromise existed in that the various role players needed a medium through which to express their intense emotions and agendas without resorting to open warfare against other parties--in the film the Romans, Jewish priests, oppressed citizens of Israel, and the disciples all expressed their hostility towards other role players involved. The eventual death of Jesus probably gave a measure of expression and satisfaction to each of the involved parties, but none of them really got what they wanted. The negotiations around the death of Jesus may be viewed as the public content of more obscure battles for one-upmanship behind the scenes. The landscape of sociopolitical relations at the time of the crucifixion is sketched by Gibson in his film, and by reviewers such as Hornaday (2004), Millikan (2004), Scott (2004), and Walsh (2004). …

Gibson's Passion : flogging a dead horse : special topic : The Passion of the Christ

Abstract: This article attempts to place Gibson's The Passion of the Christl/Ig in a more objective context, by attempting to focus on the real significance of Gibson's film in the light of Christianity's theological import and its possible interpretation(s) for a contemporary Western world. In this regard, the film is evaluated from a number of interrelated perspectives, viz: Gibson's avowed intentions, historical accuracy, the known development of the canonical Gospels, the theological teachings of both contemporary and sectarian Catholics and most importantly, the phenomenon of the film itself. The author concludes that Gibson, who clearly views his faith through the mediation of often violent film imagery, rather than serious theological insights, has pandered to the needs of a cinema-going public that is largely incapable of responding to subtlety because it has become visually punch-drunk by so much celluloid brutality and technological special effects. As a result, this film undermines its own purpose of conversion to Christianity due to its message of hate, violence and bigotry. In addition, it has the potential to undermine any reconciliation between Jewish and Christian groups. Hierdie artikel poog om Gibson se The Passion of the Christl/Ig in 'n meer objektiewe konteks te plaas deur te fokus op wat die ware betekenis van die rolprent is in die lig van Christenteologie, en die moontlike interpretasie(s) vir 'n kontemporere Westerse wereld. Die evaluasie word benader vanuit verskeie perspektiewe, naamlik: Gibson se openlike intensies, geskiedkundige akkuraatheid, Rooms Katolieke akkuraatheid, kontemporere Rooms Katolieke akkuraatheid en, die belangrikste, die fenomeen van die rolprent self. Die skrywer kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat Gibson, wat duidelik sy geloofsoortuigings uitdruk deur dikwels gewelddadige rolprentverbeelding eerder as ware teologiese insig, gebuig het voor die behoeftes van die rolprentganger. Laasgenoemde is meesal nie in staat om bereik te word deur subtiliteit nie, omdat hy reeds visueel vuisvoos is as gevolg van soveel brutaliteit en tegniese spesiale effekte. As gevolg hiervan ondermyn hierdie rolprent sy doelstelling om die Christenboodskap te verkondig, deur sy eie boodskap van haat, geweld en dwepery. Verder het dit ook die potensiaal van enige moontlike versoening tussen Jood en Christen ondermyn.

The reception of J.M. Coetzee in Russia

Abstract: Summary The reception of Coetzee's work in Russia should be interesting for a number of reasons, not least, because of Coetzee's own interest in Russian literature. The article points at a certain analogy that is detectable in the works of J.M. Coetzee and Russian classics. The affinity, which exists on various levels including the created universe as well as a certain philosophical outlook of characters, not only attests to the South African writer's literary erudition but also points at his particular interest in Russian literary exploits, which opens the range of possibilities for further comparative study. In the second part of the article, the author surveys briefly a number of reviews which appeared in Russia concurrently with the publication of Russian translations of Coetzee's work. As it appears, Russian critics are not aware of Coetzee's essays on topics related to Russian literature, as these are not available in Russian as yet. They also seldom note intertextual links between his writing and R...

Om al lesende te dink, of, die dekonstruktiewe leeshandeling

Abstract: Die dekonstruktiewe leeshandeling word as 'n strategie oorweeg wat denkwee ondersoek. In hierdie strategie word klem gele op die volgende: 1) die tekstualiteit van die teks wat 'n punt buite die logosentriese totaliteit bied, vanwaar logosentrisme dan op dekonstruktiewe wyse geartikuleer kan word; 2) die opgeskorte posisie van die outeur wat agter die teks verdwyn en dit dus nie langer oorheers nie; 3) die sinloosheid van die probleem van verwysing, aangesien die teks oneindiglik gedissemineer is in sy voortgaande onbeslisbare heenwysing na ander tekste; 4) die herinterpretasie van interpretasie wat gerig is op die gepreokkupeerde dissimulasie van die tekstuur van die teks self, wat neerkom op skrifting as die produksie van 'n betekenende struktuur wat na niks heenwys nie behalwe na 'n doolhof van die pad van die denke en wat die denke uitdaag om sig daarop te waag. Deconstructive reading must be considered as a strategy exploring the paths of thinking. In this strategy emphasis is laid on (1) the textuality of the text which offers a point outside the logocentric totality from where logocentrism can deconstructively be articulated; (2) the suspended position of the author who disappears behind the text, not dominating it anymore; (3) the senselessness of the problem of reference since the text is infinitely disseminated in its continuous undecidable allusion to other texts; (4) the reinterpretation of interpretation which is directed towards the preoccupied dissimulation of the texture of the text itself which amounts to writing as the production of a signifying structure that alluded to nothing but a labyrinth of the path of thinking challenging thinking to venture upon it.

Derek Attridge in the event : review article

Abstract: The Singularity of Literature. Attridge, Derek, 2004. London & New York: Routledge. J.M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading. {Literature in the Event}. Attridge, Derek, 2005. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu‐Natal Press.