Queerying examples of contemporary South African short fiction

Abstract

With a view to imagining the forms and foci of something that might be persuaded to manifest as post-2000 “queer South African short fiction”, I queery the possibilities of queerness as category of analysis. Using a necessarily limited, illustrative selection of stories, I discuss aspects of queer in relation to such issues as generic scope, the erotic, futurity, and queerings of the canon. The approach inclines towards queer as a deliberately blurred lens, hoping to enable not precise sightlines but an obliqueness that, in conjunction with the identifier “South African”, brings into view partial glimpses of possibility for queer understandings of local short fiction. This investigation of relationality between queer as sexuality and queer as a more broadly disruptive optic is speculative, and necessarily imprecise. The method is appropriate to thinking queerly about how to disorientate local short stories in their encounters with forms of the normative.

NILAI LINGKUNGAN DALAM CERPEN “APAKAH RUMAH KITA AKAN TENGGELAM” KARYA ANAS S MALO MELALUI TANGGAPAN MAHASISWA (KAJIAN EKOKRITIK) (Environmental Value in the Short Story “Apakah Rumah Kita Akan Tenggelam” by Anas S Malo through Student’s Responses (Ecocritical Study))

“…Cerpen dianggap ideal menangkap kepekaan masyarakat terhadap kondisi lingkungannya (Fasselt, et al, 2018;Murray, 2018). Penggubah karya sastra ada yang menjadikan lingkungan sebagai inspirasi kemudian direpresentasikan ke dalam bentuk cerpen (Juanda, 2018a(Juanda, , 2018bMhana, et al, 2019).…”

“…Penelitian ini bersifat sinkronik (sezaman) yang dapat dilihat dalam tanggapan mahasiswa yang berkaitan dengan kondisi lingkungan saat ini yang mengalami kerusakan. Salah satu kerusakan lingkungan akibat banyaknya pembukaan lahan pertambangan, sejalan penelitian Fasselt, et al (2018;Mhana, et al, 2019;Murray, 2018). Lingkungan sebagai sumber inspirasi bagi pengarang untuk selanjutnya dituangkan dalam bentuk karya sastra.…”

The short story in South Africa post-2000: Critical reflections on a genre in transition

“…Sally-Ann Murray’s (2020) contribution “Queerying examples of contemporary South African short fiction” takes as its starting point Axel Nissen’s observation that “maybe short story theory has something to learn from what is known as ‘queer theory’” (2004: 181). Examining expressions of queer sexuality in a range of recent stories by Jane Bennett, Shaun de Waal, Wamuwi Mbao, David Medalie, Sally-Ann Murray, Dolar Vasani, and Makhosazana Xaba, she suggests that these short stories not only draw attention to marginalized sexualities, but also demand a reading of the short story itself as a queer genre.…”