Zoë Wicomb, the Cape & the Cosmopolitan: An Introduction

TLDR: This paper introduced a special issue on Wicomb in relation to questions of locatedness and dislocation, home and exile, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, arising out of an international conference on the author's work held at the University of Stellenbosch in 2010.

Abstract: South African-born, Scottish-resident author Zoe Wicomb has, in two novels (David's Story [2000] and Playing in the Light [2006]), two collections of linked stories (You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town [1987] and The One That Got Away [2008]), and a number of extraordinarily trenchant and insightful essays on South African literature and culture, established a reputation as one of the most far-sighted of contemporary postcolonial authors and critics. This essay introduces a special issue on Wicomb in relation to questions of locatedness and dislocation, home and exile, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, arising out of an international conference on Wicomb's work held at the University of Stellenbosch in April 2010. Engaging with the complicated modernity of late-century and contemporary South Africa, Wicomb has long been concerned with anxieties about the ethics of speaking for, speaking over, the many voices of South Africa's multiple communities, and of those who find a home in none of them. The various essay...