Reading the Borderlands in the Fiction of Zoë Wicomb
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DeraciNation: Reading the Borderlands in the Fiction of Zoë Wicomb Cynthia Lytle ADVERTIMENT. La consulta d’aquesta tesi queda condicionada a l’acceptació de les següents condicions d'ús: La difusió d’aquesta tesi per mitjà del servei TDX (www.tdx.cat) i a través del Dipòsit Digital de la UB (diposit.ub.edu) ha estat autoritzada pels titulars dels drets de propietat intel·lectual únicament per a usos privats emmarcats en activitats d’investigació i docència. No s’autoritza la seva reproducció amb finalitats de lucre ni la seva difusió i posada a disposició des d’un lloc aliè al servei TDX ni al Dipòsit Digital de la UB. No s’autoritza la presentació del seu contingut en una finestra o marc aliè a TDX o al Dipòsit Digital de la UB (framing). Aquesta reserva de drets afecta tant al resum de presentació de la tesi com als seus continguts. En la utilització o cita de parts de la tesi és obligat indicar el nom de la persona autora. ADVERTENCIA. 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Universitat de Barcelona Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya Cynthia Lytle DeraciNation: Reading the Borderlands in the Fiction of Zoë Wicomb Tesi doctoral en Construcció i Representació d'Identitats Culturals * * * Director de la tesi Dr. Rodrigo Andrés González Tutora de la tesi Dra. Susan Ballyn 2 Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without all of the support and contributions I have been fortunate to have. I am very thankful to Rodrigo Andrés González, who, ever since the start of my master’s, has given me the guidance, understanding and the relentless encouragement I have needed to complete this work. Thank you for your inspiration and for always believing in me and in this project. I am also indebted to Susan Ballyn, who has given me great insight, advice and support. Thank you for not only taking me on but also for graciously opening the doors to the Australian Studies Centre and giving me a room of my own to complete this dissertation. Merci beaucoup to Vanessa Castejon. Our talks widened my research horizons and sparked deeper interests that fed my research. Your encouragement, help and support throughout the years has helped me immensely and kept me going despite the distance. A very special thank you to Antonio Paoliello, whose immeasurable support, unbelievable brilliance and homemade cooking have fed my heart, brain and belly ever since we have met. Thank you for giving me home and for always being there for me, bestest! Not a day goes by that I do not feel grateful for all you have done for me. I would also like to show my appreciation to Laura López Peña for all of your help throughout the years and for sharing experiences of working on a PhD. Muchas gracias a Ángela Silva Charlín y a José Manuel Castaño Díaz por la gran amistad, el amor, el apoyo interminable y los momentos culinarios que compartimos. Sois el sol de Galicia y siempre estáis en mi corazón. 3 I am also very grateful to Marina Giuliante and Lucio Sampietro Elkoroiribe, my first friends in Barcelona. You have been there through thick and thin. Grazie y eskerrik asko for being my family and for making me laugh all of these years. I look forward to many more. Thank you to Benjamin Buhay, Elizabeth Buhay, Anne Kee and Tim Storm for such continued friendship, late night phone and Skype sessions and for always opening your homes to me in Texas. I do not know what I would have done without you. I would like to thank my close friends Ginger Becker, Jacob Childress, Sabriya Fisher, Tamara Goheen, Jodi Miller, Karla Steffen and Rebecca Whitley for your love, laughs and great conversations. I am also grateful to Stephanie Burchard for planting the seed of this project and for encouraging me to never give up. Dr. Taco is on the way! Merci beaucoup à Marc Giroud and Didin Samsudin for all the love, care and happiness that you have shared with me throughout these years. I feel at home when I am with you. En Barcelona, gracias a Jaime Quezadas Bolaños, a Stephanie Ejegi-Memeh y a Giorgia Ovidi por compartir la amistad y los momentos en este lugar que llamamos hogar. Moltes gràcies a Danielle Lewis, for bringing everything that I love about Texas and more to Catalunya, i a Carlos Javier Molina Avalos per les converses sobre la història, llengua i cultura catalana. Also, thanks to new friends Tracy Watkin and Jeff Watkin for helping me get through this last year with food, friendship and interesting conversations on feminism and theology. Finally, thank you to my parents and my brother Bruce for your love and for giving me the tools I have needed to get this far. I love you all. 4 ABSTRACT This dissertation analyzes the fiction of South African author Zoë Wicomb (1948- ) through her two collections of short stories: You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town (1987) and The One that Got Away (2008) and two novels: David’s Story (2000) and Playing in the Light (2006). Using an interdisciplinary approach, the concept of deraciNation, which is the uprooting and discrimination of peoples as a way to uphold the notion of Nation, and an adaptation of Gloria Anzaldúa’s borderland theory in an investigation of the coloured community in its construction as an intermediary group between black and white and its locations in the margins of society, this dissertation investigates how discrimination has not only played a role in the construction and representation of coloured identities, but also how it was adopted and incorporated within the community. Wicomb calls attention to oppression in both external and internal forms, exemplifying the failures of the struggle against apartheid and the self-contradictions that can also be violent. Specifically, this dissertation analyzes the spaces of home, neighborhood and nation, which were locations of deracination through external forces of imperialism and colonialism. Moreover, it examines oppression, which has led to these spaces being gendered and racialized, has persisted in coloured identities in post-apartheid South Africa and transnationally into Europe, two areas in which Wicomb’s fictional writings take place as sites of both home and displacement. Furthermore, this dissertation scrutinizes the notion of truth, through an examination of violence, memory and his/herstories as a way of bringing lesser-known stories to the light. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. CHAPTER ONE: Introduction . 7 I. Borderlands . 7 II. Purpose . .10 III. Object of Study . .14 IV. State of the Field . .17 V. Research Hypothesis . 20 VI. Methodological Framework . 22 i. Data Collection . 22 ii. Challenges . .26 VII. Structure of Dissertation . 27 VIII. Terminological and Formal Considerations . .29 II. CHAPTER TWO: Defining Spaces . .31 I. Introduction . .31 II. The Landing and Control . .32 III. Dividing the Land, Constructing Races . 36 i. Imagining the White Nation . 38 ii. Creating ‘Coloured:’ Miscegenation to Separation . 43 IV. Apartheid and Control . 55 V. Conclusion . .61 III. CHAPTER THREE: Theoretical Framework . 64 I. Introduction . .64 II. What is DeraciNation? . .65 III. What Are the Borderlands? . .72 i. Location of Borderland Culture . .74 ii. Constructing the Borderlands . .77 IV. Re-constructing and Re-presenting through Literature . 80 IV. CHAPTER FOUR: Contesting Spaces: Home, Neighborhood and Nation . .84 I. Introduction . .84 II. De/constructing Home . .84 i. Coloured Homes, Picketing White Fences . 88 ii. Home Lost . 101 iii. De/parting the Lands . .109 III. Neighbor/hood . 116 i. Re/locating Neighbors: Garden Making and Weed Eating . .118 ii. The Neighbor: an Other Within . 133 IV. The Nation . 142 i. Deracing Nations . .144 ii. Using the Gendered, National Body . 153 iii. Racial Boundaries and Performance . .157 iv. Nationalism and the Other . .162 V. Conclusion . .168 6 V. CHAPTER FIVE: To the Light/house of Truths . .170 I. Introduction . .170 II. Deracination and Dismemberment . .170 i. Violence Unsilenced .