Journal ArticleDOI
Subversion versus Inversion: The Loss of the Carnivalesque in Janet Suzman's The Free State
TLDR
In this paper, the concept of the carnival as developed by Mikhail Bakhtin is used to investigate the effect of post-colonisation drama on post-colonial drama.Abstract:
SummaryAccording to Gilbert and Thompkins (1996: 5), postcolonial drama is aimed at dismantling the hierarchies and determinants that create binary oppositions in postcolonial contexts and – according to Young (2001: 4) – also actively transforming the present “out of the clutches of the past”. This dismantling can, however, only occur when the inevitable ambivalence of postcolonial binaries are taken into account (Gilbert & Thompkins 1996: 6). In her text The Free State (2000a), Janet Suzman attempts to appropriate Chekhov's dismantling of power structures in The Cherry Orchard (1904) within the South African context. However, although The Free State is written against the former apartheid regime, it fails to dismantle the hierarchies within its context because it negates the vital carnivalesque subversion of Chekhov's text. Instead of subverting the hierarchies in her context, Suzman merely inverts them. In this article, the concept of the carnival as developed by Mikhail Bakhtin is used to investigate ...read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
South Africa and Zimbabwe
TL;DR: In 2013, the South African literary awards reflected the range of books published, with each of the main awards going to a different book as mentioned in this paper, and a wide range of novels were published; there was an increase in the short stories in print; strong new voices emerged and many books gained both popular and critical attention.
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Book ChapterDOI
The reign of Alexander II: a watershed?
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the reasons and preconditions for the abolition of serfdom in Russia and the reforms which followed, local government reforms, judicial reform, abolition of corporal punishment, the reform of the military, public education, and censorship.
Journal ArticleDOI
The (Re)Working of Dramatic Language in Janet Suzman's The Free State
TL;DR: The Free State: A South African Response to Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" as discussed by the authors is a play written by a South African playwright, who rewrote the original dramatic dialogue of the play and transposed it into a post-1994 South African idiom.