DOCSLIB.ORG

Setting Art Apart: Inside and Outside the South African National Gallery (1895-2016)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Setting Art Apart: Inside and Outside the South African National Gallery (1895-2016) Setting Art Apart: Inside and Outside the South African National Gallery (1895-2016) Qanita Lilla Dissertation presented for the degree of Visual Arts, at the Stellenbosch University. Supervisor: Prof. Elizabeth Gunter Co-Supervisor: Dr. Andrea Meyer March 2018 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Declaration I declare that the entirety of the work contained herein, is my own original work. I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated) that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights. I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. Qanita Lilla Copyright © 2018 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved I Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Abstract Setting Art Apart explores practices of exclusion and erasure in the white art world in South Africa. It looks at how art and art spaces, such as the art museum and the art academy were part of a project of reinforcing difference. The South African National Gallery in Cape Town is the historical reference of the study. The time frame spans the colonial beginnings of the museum through apartheid to the democratic present. After a long period of bureaucratic uncertainty the South African National Gallery was opened in 1930 as a monument to white art and culture. Excluding those who did not belong was part of the process of white self- affirmation. State art museums served to make black people invisible by portraying them as marginal while denying their art. Furthermore, the art museum played a role in the way powerful white constituencies imagined themselves. There are two prevailing elements that I have found useful to examine in the project: the manipulation of space and the changing position of the excluded black individual. Space is what was imagined, defined and controlled by the South African National Gallery. The museum shaped itself into a field of contention during the colonial period, physically setting art apart in the racially heterogeneous city of Cape Town. The museum differentiated itself from private spaces during apartheid by aligning itself with the sanitization and reconfiguration of the city. The black individual had a fraught and traumatic relationship with the white art world. At once omnipresent and invisible, black people did the manual labor and kept the museum space pristine but their presence was scarcely recognized. In this thesis I consider numerous instances of the erasure of black subjectivity including the way black female models were studied as generic black bodies in drawing classes at Rhodes University and were barely considered human. After apartheid, at the South African National Gallery, the art made by black women was made hyper-visible and the women themselves were objectified while the legacy of apartheid endured. In order to investigate practices inside the museum, I use traditional methods of archival research and look at exhibition catalogues, annual reports, newspaper reports and associated publications to track what was included. However, looking at what was erased and excluded exceeds the bounds of traditional methodologies, especially since archives were formed through colonial and apartheid enterprise. In order to engage with the apartheid archive while seeking to examine what is on the outside I position myself in the argument. As researcher, as a woman of colour and as a subject excluded from the white art world I insert my personal voice and experience in order to open up a space closed off to people of colour. Setting Art Apart is a project about a public institution that was never truly public and by inserting my own voice I engage subjectively with marginalization and exclusion. II Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Acknowledgements This project has had a convoluted journey, reaching its conclusion would not have been possible without the kindness and patience of numerous people. Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Elizabeth Gunter at Stellenbosch University who offered me support, encouragement and good humour throughout this project. Thank you to my co-supervisor Dr. Andrea Meyer at Technische Universität, Berlin, who showed immense enthusiasm for this project and who added valuable insight despite our physical distance. Words cannot convey my thanks for the support I have received from my family. My husband Ross Campbell has always believed that this was something I needed to do. He never once doubted my abilities, taking on more than his fair share and enduring this intense period with great fortitude and tenderness. To my beautiful children Hamza and Bilal, three years seemed like a very long time but you’ll both be happy that I can finally emerge out from under ‘the book’. Thank you to my incredible sister, Ibtisaam Lilla for her generosity as well as her invaluable help across academic/family life, for her help with archival citations, IT support and with countless meals and childcare. Thank you to my mother, Nazley Lilla, who believed that my voice had to be heard and my story told. I only truly felt that this project was worthwhile when I saw the excitement and recognition in her eyes. My father, Abdulrahman Lilla, who survived because of education and who passed on the yearning and passion to me. To my dear friends who have shown me such love and generosity. I am blessed to count you as kindred spirits. Kylie Thomas who is compassionate, caring and ambitious, who generously shared so much of her knowledge with me. Mary Coombes who has come a long way from Rhodes, who survived art school stronger and wiser. Thank you for kindly allowing me to include your beautiful drawings. Carole Thompson who believed that there was life beyond the trenches of Doha. I thank you all deeply. I would like to acknowledge and thank the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) for the financial support over the period of the study. III Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Table of Contents List of Figures IX INTRODUCTION Background and context 2 Theoretical framework 4 Chapter outline 6 Race 11 Premise 14 CHAPTER ONE Setting Art Apart 1.1 Introduction 16 1.2 South African National Gallery 17 1.3 Doing theory 20 1.4 Visual culture and the postcolonial 26 1.5 Postcolonialism and the subaltern subject 29 1.6 Postcolonial Theory 33 1.7 Decolonial Thinking 34 1.8 The subaltern and border thinking 35 1.9 Syntheses: Whiteness and the construction of national identity 39 1.10 Conclusion 42 CHAPTER TWO Shaping a Field of Contention at the South African National Gallery (1895–1947) 2.1 Introduction 44 2.2 Origins and Background of a Colonial Art Museum (1895) 47 2.3 Classical Casts for the Colony (1908) 48 IV Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za 2.4 The Aesthetics of Union and the South African National Gallery Opens (1910 to 1930) 52 2.5 Conservative rhetoric in the Cape Town art world (1940–1947) 57 2.6 The Art Sales and the Commission of Enquiry (1944–1947) 62 2.7 The Modern art debate revisited (1947) 68 2.8 Good, Decent, and Uplifting: The Bailey Collection (1947) 70 2.9 Conclusion 72 CHAPTER THREE The power of public and private spaces: Remapping the city and the South African National Gallery (1949-1970’s) 3.1 Introduction 74 3.2 Eliding blackness: The South African National Gallery (1950’s) 76 3.3 John Paris (1949-1963) 78 3.4 Displaying whiteness: temporary and permanent exhibitions (1950’s-1960’s) 79 3.5 Founder Nations (1958) 83 3.6 Forced removals and white collusion: Cape liberalism and early apartheid (1950’s-1960’s) 87 3.7 The last days of District Six (1970’s) 92 3.8 The District Six Museum 93 3.9 Forced removals and looking at family photographs 101 3.10 Re-mapping Cape Town and the District Six Museum 107 3.11 Conclusion 108 CHAPTER FOUR Inside and outside a divided white art world (1980’s) 4.1 Introduction: Cultural institutions and the state (1980’s) 111 4.2 PW Botha’s politics and Separate Amenities (1980’s) 117 V Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za 4.3 Circumventing state censorship at the South African National Gallery (1979) 121 4.4 The state of art in South Africa conference (1979) 124 4.5 South African Artists Association (SAAA) 131 4.6 The Cape Town Triennial and the Culture and Resistance Arts Festival Gaborone, Botswana (1982) 134 4.6.1 Inside the white art world: The Cape Town Triennial (1982) 134 4.6.2 Outside the white art world: The Culture and Resistance Symposium and Festival of the Arts, Gaborone (1982) 138 4.7 Thami Mnyele: artist, activist 139 4.8 Apartheid intervention and Operation Plecksy (1985) 144 4.9 People’s art and the state 146 4.10 Cultural boycotts (1981) 148 4.11 Valparaiso Biennale Chile and exhibitions of ‘good will’ (1986) 148 4.12 South African Artists respond to Valparaiso (1987) 150 4.13 The Esmeralda and El Rostro de Chile (The face of Chile) Pretoria exhibition (1985) 152 4.14 Arts funding: Foundation for the Creative Arts (1989) 155 4.15 Conclusion 156 CHAPTER FIVE The black body imagined in a white art world (1990’s) 5.1 Introduction: Life drawing and art instruction at Rhodes University 158 5.2 The art history syllabus 163 5.3 The black model in the white art studio 167 5.4 Encountering the black female body and playing at having a white eye 171 5.5 Apartheid and the black body 175 5.6 The black body and the pursuit of knowledge 177 5.7 Invisibility and silence on the fringes 181 5.8 Unknown and isolated: black experiences in
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Restoration of Tulbagh As Cultural Signifier
    BETWEEN MEMORY AND HISTORY: THE RESTORATION OF TULBAGH AS CULTURAL SIGNIFIER Town Cape of A 60-creditUniversity dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Philosophy in the Conservation of the Built Environment. Jayson Augustyn-Clark (CLRJAS001) University of Cape Town / June 2017 Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment: School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town ‘A measure of civilization’ Let us always remember that our historical buildings are not only big tourist attractions… more than just tradition…these buildings are a visible, tangible history. These buildings are an important indication of our level of civilisation and a convincing proof for a judgmental critical world - that for more than 300 years a structured and proper Western civilisation has flourished and exist here at the southern point of Africa. The visible tracks of our cultural heritage are our historic buildings…they are undoubtedly the deeds to the land we love and which God in his mercy gave to us. 1 2 Fig.1. Front cover – The reconstructed splendour of Church Street boasts seven gabled houses in a row along its western side. The author’s house (House 24, Tulbagh Country Guest House) is behind the tree (photo by Norman Collins).
    [Show full text]
  • 6318 SUPPLEMENT to the LONDON GAZETTE, 5 JUNE, 1920. to Be Companions of the Said Most Eminent Percy Armytage, Esq., M.V.O
    6318 SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 5 JUNE, 1920. To be Companions of the said Most Eminent Percy Armytage, Esq., M.V.O. Order:— LieutenantX^lonel John Mackenzie RJogan, M.V.O. Charles Turner Allen, Esq., Cooper, Allen <fe. (Dated 30th March, 1920.) Co., Cawnpore, United Provinces. Lieutenant-Colonel1 Chetwynd Rokeby Alfred To be Member of the Fourth Class. Bond, C.B.E., late Indian Staff Corps. Major George Gooding. Charles William Egerton Cotton, Esq., Indian 'Civil Service, Collector of Customs, Calcutta. William Patrick Cowie, Esq., Indian Civil Ser- vice, Private Secretary to the Governor of CENTRAL CHANCERY OF THE ORDERS Bombay. Major Frederick Wernham Gerrard, Deputy OF KNIGHTHOOD. Commissioner of Police, Basrah, Mesopo- St. James's Palace, S.W. 1, tamia. 5th June,, 1920. Khan Bahadur Muhammad Habibulla Sahib Bahadur, Ex-Member of the Executive The KING has been graciously pleased, on Council of Madras. the occasion of His Majesty's Birthday, to Percy Harrison, Esq., Indian Civil Service, give orders for the following promotions in, Junior Member, Board of Revenue, United and appointments to, the Most Excellent Provinces. Order of the British Empire:—• Major Francis Henry Humphry s, Indian To be Knights Ground Cross of the Civil Army, Political Agent, Khyber, North-West Division of the said Most Excellent Frontier Province. Order:— Claud Mackenzie Hutchinson, Esq., Imperial Agricultural Bacteriologist. Sir Percy Elly Bates, Bart. Cowasji Jehangir, Junior, Esq., O.B.E., Presi- Voluntary services to the Ministry of dent, Bombay Municipality. .Shipping for five years. Charles Burdett La Touche, Esq., Manager, Sir John Lome MacLeod, LL.D., D.L.
    [Show full text]
  • NELSON MAKAMO (B
    NELSON MAKAMO (b. 1982, Limpopo, South Africa) In my work, I reflect on the movement of culture amongst the youth living in and around the city. My observation is that there is an exchange between people where we adopt each other’s cultures that are relevant to our respective ages. I am greatly fascinated by this, and how we in turn manage our identity with different personas. Therefore, my work aims to show that we are always changing and moving in a path of self discovery. My work does not represent a certain group of people, it moves across cultures and generations. Known for his vibrant portraits set in pulsating African urbanized landscapes, Nelson Makamo is a celebrated, young South African artist. Observing with astute sensitivity the chaotic energy of the city, Makamo strives to capture everyday people going about their ordinary lives as the contemporary world accelerates around them. Joining the Artist Proof Studio (Johannesburg) in 2003, Makamo was the recipient of the Johnson & Johnson International bursary. He exhibited alongside fellow South African artists William Kentridge, Deborah Bell and David Koloane in Ten Years of Printmaking at the David Krut Print Studio in 2006. Makamo has exhibited in America, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Scotland, and is included in various international public and private collections. His solo exhibition, A New Lease on Life, recently ran at CIRCA Gallery, Johannesburg and major exhibitions of his work will take place at Everard Read, Cape Town and CIRCA Gallery London in 2016/17. SOLO
    [Show full text]
  • Re-Creating Home British Colonialism, Culture And
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by South East Academic Libraries System (SEALS) RE-CREATING HOME BRITISH COLONIALISM, CULTURE AND THE ZUURVELD ENVIRONMENT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Jill Payne Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Professor Paul Maylam Rhodes University Grahamstown May 1998 ############################################## CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ..................................... p. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................... p.iii PREFACE ................................................... p.iv ABSTRACT .................................................. p.v I: INTRODUCTION ........................................ p.1 II: ROMANCE, REALITY AND THE COLONIAL LANDSCAPE ...... p.15 III: LAND USE AND LANDSCAPE CHANGE .................... p.47 IV: ADVANCING SETTLEMENT, RETREATING WILDLIFE ........ p.95 V: CONSERVATION AND CONTROL ........................ p.129 VI: CONCLUSION ........................................ p.160 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................ p.165 i ############################################## LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure i. Map of the Zuurveld ............................... p.10 Figure ii. Representation of a Bushman elephant hunt ........... p.99 Figure iii: Representation of a colonial elephant hunt ........... p.100 ii ############################################## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My grateful thanks must go firstly to Professor Paul Maylam. In overseeing
    [Show full text]
  • Early History of South Africa
    THE EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA EVOLUTION OF AFRICAN SOCIETIES . .3 SOUTH AFRICA: THE EARLY INHABITANTS . .5 THE KHOISAN . .6 The San (Bushmen) . .6 The Khoikhoi (Hottentots) . .8 BLACK SETTLEMENT . .9 THE NGUNI . .9 The Xhosa . .10 The Zulu . .11 The Ndebele . .12 The Swazi . .13 THE SOTHO . .13 The Western Sotho . .14 The Southern Sotho . .14 The Northern Sotho (Bapedi) . .14 THE VENDA . .15 THE MASHANGANA-TSONGA . .15 THE MFECANE/DIFAQANE (Total war) Dingiswayo . .16 Shaka . .16 Dingane . .18 Mzilikazi . .19 Soshangane . .20 Mmantatise . .21 Sikonyela . .21 Moshweshwe . .22 Consequences of the Mfecane/Difaqane . .23 Page 1 EUROPEAN INTERESTS The Portuguese . .24 The British . .24 The Dutch . .25 The French . .25 THE SLAVES . .22 THE TREKBOERS (MIGRATING FARMERS) . .27 EUROPEAN OCCUPATIONS OF THE CAPE British Occupation (1795 - 1803) . .29 Batavian rule 1803 - 1806 . .29 Second British Occupation: 1806 . .31 British Governors . .32 Slagtersnek Rebellion . .32 The British Settlers 1820 . .32 THE GREAT TREK Causes of the Great Trek . .34 Different Trek groups . .35 Trichardt and Van Rensburg . .35 Andries Hendrik Potgieter . .35 Gerrit Maritz . .36 Piet Retief . .36 Piet Uys . .36 Voortrekkers in Zululand and Natal . .37 Voortrekker settlement in the Transvaal . .38 Voortrekker settlement in the Orange Free State . .39 THE DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS AND GOLD . .41 Page 2 EVOLUTION OF AFRICAN SOCIETIES Humankind had its earliest origins in Africa The introduction of iron changed the African and the story of life in South Africa has continent irrevocably and was a large step proven to be a micro-study of life on the forwards in the development of the people.
    [Show full text]
  • Former Fellows Biographical Index Part
    Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002 Biographical Index Part Two ISBN 0 902198 84 X Published July 2006 © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 22-26 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2PQ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 PART II K-Z C D Waterston and A Macmillan Shearer This is a print-out of the biographical index of over 4000 former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh as held on the Society’s computer system in October 2005. It lists former Fellows from the foundation of the Society in 1783 to October 2002. Most are deceased Fellows up to and including the list given in the RSE Directory 2003 (Session 2002-3) but some former Fellows who left the Society by resignation or were removed from the roll are still living. HISTORY OF THE PROJECT Information on the Fellowship has been kept by the Society in many ways – unpublished sources include Council and Committee Minutes, Card Indices, and correspondence; published sources such as Transactions, Proceedings, Year Books, Billets, Candidates Lists, etc. All have been examined by the compilers, who have found the Minutes, particularly Committee Minutes, to be of variable quality, and it is to be regretted that the Society’s holdings of published billets and candidates lists are incomplete. The late Professor Neil Campbell prepared from these sources a loose-leaf list of some 1500 Ordinary Fellows elected during the Society’s first hundred years. He listed name and forenames, title where applicable and national honours, profession or discipline, position held, some information on membership of the other societies, dates of birth, election to the Society and death or resignation from the Society and reference to a printed biography.
    [Show full text]
  • The Free State, South Africa
    Higher Education in Regional and City Development Higher Education in Regional and City Higher Education in Regional and City Development Development THE FREE STATE, SOUTH AFRICA The third largest of South Africa’s nine provinces, the Free State suffers from The Free State, unemployment, poverty and low skills. Only one-third of its working age adults are employed. 150 000 unemployed youth are outside of training and education. South Africa Centrally located and landlocked, the Free State lacks obvious regional assets and features a declining economy. Jaana Puukka, Patrick Dubarle, Holly McKiernan, How can the Free State develop a more inclusive labour market and education Jairam Reddy and Philip Wade. system? How can it address the long-term challenges of poverty, inequity and poor health? How can it turn the potential of its universities and FET-colleges into an active asset for regional development? This publication explores a range of helpful policy measures and institutional reforms to mobilise higher education for regional development. It is part of the series of the OECD reviews of Higher Education in Regional and City Development. These reviews help mobilise higher education institutions for economic, social and cultural development of cities and regions. They analyse how the higher education system T impacts upon regional and local development and bring together universities, other he Free State, South Africa higher education institutions and public and private agencies to identify strategic goals and to work towards them. CONTENTS Chapter 1. The Free State in context Chapter 2. Human capital and skills development in the Free State Chapter 3.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nature of Medicine in South Africa: the Intersection of Indigenous and Biomedicine
    THE NATURE OF MEDICINE IN SOUTH AFRICA: THE INTERSECTION OF INDIGENOUS AND BIOMEDICINE By Kristina Monroe Bishop __________________________________ A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY AND DEVELOPMENT In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN GEOGRAPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2010 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Kristina Monroe Bishop entitled The Nature of Medicine in South Africa: The Intersection of Indigenous and Biomedicine and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _____________________________________________Date: May 7, 2010 Paul Robbins _____________________________________________Date: May 7, 2010 John Paul Jones III _____________________________________________Date: May 7, 2010 Sarah Moore _____________________________________________Date: May 7, 2010 Ivy Pike Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: May 7, 2010 Dissertation Director: Paul Robbins 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrower under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted from the author.
    [Show full text]
  • Art at La Residence Contents
    ART AT LA RESIDENCE CONTENTS CONTENTS 1 LEON MORROCCO 24 INTRODUCTION 2 FRANCOIS MOUTON 25 - 27 HENNIE NIEMANN JNR 28 PAINTINGS 3 HENNIE NIEMANN SNR 29 MICHAEL AUSTIN 4 MARC POISSON 30 BEEZY BAILEY 5 GEORGE ROWLETT 31 KENNETH BAKER 6 CARYN SCRIMGEOUR 32 CLAIRE BERLEIN 7 WILLIAM SLEBY 33 GEORGE DEVLIN 8 RICHARD SMITH 34 NORMAN EDGAR 9 DEZIREE SWANEPOEL 35 RICKY DYALOYI 10 SHANY VAN DEN BERG 36 PHILIP ERSKINE 11 - 13 JUDY WOODBORNE 37 - 38 SASHA HARTSLIEF 14 - 16 SARA-J 39 - 40 KEN HOWARD 17 CLAUDE JAMMET 18 SCULPTURE 41 CHARLES KAMANGWANA 19 GUY DU TOIT 42 NORMAN KIRKHAM 20 DYLAN LEWIS 43 AYANDA MABULU 21 KEVIN ROBERTS 44 SIBLEY MCADAM 22 NEIL RODGER 45 DENBY MEYER 23 FLORIAN WOZNIAK 46 1 F ounding owners of The Royal Portfolio, Liz and Phil Biden, have always had a passionate relationship with art. This appreciation is shown in the beautiful collection of art and interior ornaments across The Royal Portfolio properties. Art is deeply ingrained into each property’s character, reflecting Liz and Phil Biden’s keen and adventurous eye for the beautiful. Drawing inspiration from her travels around the world, Liz has acquired a unique and varied collection of art and interior artifacts. Local artists are often commissioned, giving up-and-coming African artists exposure to the international guests staying at each property. The Silo Hotel, the latest addition to The Royal Portfolio, is one of the first hotels in the world to be situated directly above a prestigious art museum, Zeitz MOCAA. Liz Biden explains: “I have always included wonderful art at each of The Royal Portfolio properties.
    [Show full text]
  • Magical Realism Beyond the Wall of Apartheid? Missing Persons by Ivan Vladislavic
    Magical Realism Beyond the Wall of Apartheid? Missing Persons by Ivan Vladislavic Valeria Guidotti A boundary is not that at which something stops but [... ] from which something begins its presenang. (Martin Heidegger, Poetry, l.Ilnguage, TIwught)l OUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE, LIKE SHEHERAZADE, has repeatedly Sbeen threatened by death. Critics and intellectuals, mainly from out­ side Africa, formerly feared that the oppressive restriction of apart­ heid would kill creativity; more recently they have been afraid that its demise, with the collapse of that totalitarian system encompassing all fields, social, political, and cultural, would have the same result. How can South African literature survive? Where can it find new life and sustenance? I wish I could make a definite reply to these obsessive ques­ tions: magical realism, a major component of postmodernist fiction and an important feature of post-colonial writing, is also a well established literary practice in post-apartheid literature. However, the transition to freedom is a moment of "cultural uncertainty, and, most crucially, of significatory or representational undecidability."2 This paper will therefore simply attempt to trace the existence of a fictional mode identifiable as magical realism in South Africa; it will also attempt to uncover connections with and local 1 Martin Heidegger, "Building, Dwelling, Thinking" in Poetry, l.Ilnguage, TIwught; quoted by Homi K Bhabha in The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994 ): 1 (author's emphasis). 2 Bhabha, The Location of Culture,
    [Show full text]
  • A JOURNAL of LIBERAL and RADICAL OPINION Vol
    «~*~»^, %!.:•,'./* WMI^MSffm Kiiil :maimm V::^W' ...\'.^' • ^WV-W^:& a z A JOURNAL OF LIBERAL AND RADICAL OPINION Vol. 21 No. 6 ISSN 0034 0979 November 1989 in this issue... EDITORIALS BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE BANTUSTANS 2 DE KLERK'S FIRST DAYS 3 UNDER THE RED FLAG 3 BILL AINSLIE - A Tribute 4 THE BATTLE FOR TUYNHUYS AND ALL THAT by Ralph Lawrence 6 THE METEORITE AT THE END OF THE LENSby Dorian Haarhoff 9 POPULARISING THE PAST: A review of Edgar's Because they chose the plan of God and Witz's Write your own History by Ruth Edgecombe 12 THE CURRENT MACRO ECONOMIC CRISIS by Gordon Smith 15 CAN THE TRUE EXODUS STOP AT DAMASCUS: A review of The Road to Damascus by Martin Prozesky COVER PICTURES: Aron Maze!. Articles printed in Reality do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Editorial Board EDITORIALS 1. Beginning of the end of the Bantustans? It is not often that a military coup brings much good to even discover what threats and what bribes those were those upon whom it is inflicted, but it begins to look as if that first brought the Matanzimas to power. For it could the Transkei might be different. Since General Holomisa hardly be coincidence that, at the Transkei Legislative took over that sad state he has had most of his time taken Assembly's first session, after Sabata's anti-indepen­ up with exposing and rooting out the corruption of the dence Democratic Party had swept the board in all but two Matanzima's.
    [Show full text]
  • SA Art Times May 2009
    THE SOUTH AFRICAN Issue : May 2009 Full free edition available at www.arttimes.co.za 1 Years subscription R 180 E-mail subs@arttimes for details TIMES ART Cecil Skotnes in his studio 1967 Photo: courtesy Pippa Skotnes Cecil Skotnes 1926 – 2009 As a tribute to this great man The Art Times has commissioned an artist’s profile on Cecil Skotnes. Also see Hayden Proud’s Obituary in SA Business Art . Art life renews itself through recession ‘What we’re going through is not unique,’ says Siebrits. ‘Sadly, no one is immune.’ Lim-Fat and Roger Signer of global wealth and putting their demand for morphosed from a hazy projection ‘phenomenally successful Art Fair’, This is no flash-in-the-pan, financial services company Credit art on ice. into an uncomfortable reality. the gallery’s doors will only be open fly-by-night gallery, but one of Alex Dodd Suisse. ‘Nowadays, deals are Still, all this nasty weather seemed until the end of May. Johannesburg’s most exacting taking longer to close. Buyers are quite distant and academic to us I tiptoed into January with a and scholarly minded contem- more prudent and taking more time down here in the sun-drenched dreaded sense is that our land- porary art institutions. Warren to get to know the paintings before South – until sales figures from the scape was going to be morphing Siebrits has been responsible for We started out the year on tenter- reaching a final decision.’ recent Joburg Art Fair came home quite irrevocably over the next few reviving the reputations of many hooks, not knowing how the global to roost.
    [Show full text]