South African Novelists and the Grand Narrative of Apartheid

Abstract

The apartheid policies and practices by means of which South Africa was formerly governed also had an ideological or mythological dimension, which functioned as its justificatory narrative. The process of replacing that narrative which needs to be undertaken in South Africa can make use, among other processes, of the re-presentations of this society by our novelists. This paper sketches something of the complex interplay between fiction, social reality, and moral-political understanding at the hand of six novels. It focuses on depictions of acts and experiences of violation as the signature of the ruthless force and after-effects of the apartheid system. It draws attention to the various, but socially meaningful workings of novelistic discourse in these texts, functioning as they do within a situation requiring profound psychic and social readjustment.

National trauma work and the depiction of women in two Afrikaans historical Karoo novels: <i>Fiela’s child</i> and <i>Sorg</i>

“…In terms of South African literature as trauma work, many others (Attridge & Jolly 1998;Bethlehem 2006;Brink 1998;De Kok 1996;Ester et al 2012;Gagiano 2006;Graham 2003;Human 2004Human , 2009Nkosi 1998;Thomas 2009;Tran 2011;Van der Merwe & Gobodo-Madikizela 2008;Vosloo 2012) have identified it as a significant vehicle for attempts at 'reflect[ing] South Africa's changing mood as the country endeavours to work through its trauma' and for 'exploring the tenuous relationship between memory and forgetting and healing and forgiveness in order to respond to the greater challenges posed by the limits of empathy and sympathy' (Tran 2011:59). Pearson (2000, in Chapman 2003:1) says that South African literature since 1990 has been involved with the ambiguities of transition, the tension between memory and amnesia, whilst Chapman (1996) points out that literature helps to interrogate the South African mythos.…”

Exploring Young Black Persons' Narratives About the Apartheid Past

“…Research by Van der Merwe (2005, p. 30) revealed that adult black participants, who were disadvantaged by the apartheid system, stated that their own children could not "comprehend the hardships" of their past. Bam (2000) and Gagiano (2006) accounted for such attitudes by many of South Africa's youth, across cultural groups, as their discourse of justification because they felt they had nothing to do with it. Vermeulen (2006) stated in his study that two black adults communicated that their own children were interested only in their own material needs and appeared to be disinterested in their parents' past experiences as oppressed persons.…”