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Reading the City: Analysing Literary Space in Selected Postapartheid Urban Narratives by Niall Mcnulty a Thesis Submitted In

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Reading the City: Analysing Literary Space in Selected Postapartheid Urban Narratives by Niall Mcnulty a Thesis Submitted In Reading the City: analysing literary space in selected postapartheid urban narratives by Niall McNulty A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of Master ofArts University ofKwaZulu-Natal 2005 Declaration The Registrar (Academic) UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL Dear Sir/ Madam I, Niall McNulty Student No: 204520432 Hereby declare that the dissertation entitled: Reading the City: analysing literary space in selected postapartheid urban narratives Is the result ofmy own investigation and research and that it has not been submitted in part or in full for any other degree or to any other university. Signed by _ Approved by ---------------------- Supervisor Date 11 ABSTRACT Reading the City - analysing literary space in selected postapartheid urban narratives. Space can be read through text. Space is also constructed through text. Literary and critical theory has, however, emphasised time over space. However, space, place and location are crucial determining factors in any literary study. Through reference to theories of construction of place as well as writings on spatial history and the city I will discuss how place is created through text and how the urban environment affects literary production. Using the work of Michel Foucault (1986, 2002) on space and power, Michel de Certeau's approach to cities (2002) and WaIter Benjamin's (2002) theories on space, time and the city, as well as South African theoretical approaches to space and the city, I will attempt an analysis of place in chosen pieces of literature set in the post­ apartheid city by selected writers. I have chosen to focus on the cities of Durban and Johannesburg, and in particular the innercities, because it is here that major transformation in the use and representation ofspace has occurred. By looking at selected apartheid and postapartheid texts I will be able to analyse how the representation of literary space has altered with political and socio-economic changes. The time period I will look at primarily will be the postapartheid period. The interdisciplinary nature of this project means I will draw from literary criticism, critical theory, geography, sociology and economic history as well as elements ofpostcolonial and postmodem theory. The South African city today is a post-city; postcolonial and postapartheid. So too, the texts I have selected are post-texts, postmodem and post-struggle and I will conduct my analysis with this in mind. The concept of 'city' in literature is much more than just buildings and streets. It exists also in social relationships and links between people, both in the city and places outside of the city. The city is a set of social, political and cultural conditions that manifests itself in space and it is this aspect of 'city' which is represented in these texts that I will investigate. Through focusing on the autobiography Man Bitch (2001) by Johan van Wyk together with Never Been At Home (2001) by Zazah P. Khuzwayo and No Way Out (2001) by Zinhle Carol Mdakane all set in Durban, and Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001) by Phaswane Mpe and the short story "Autopsy" (1996) by Ivan Vladislavic set in Johannesburg, I will investigate the representation of urban space in these texts ofpostapartheid literature. By way ofintroduction, I will examine relevant selected apartheid texts that deal with the cities of Durban (Lewis Nkosi's novel Mating Birds (1987)) and Johannesburg (selected poems of Mongane Wally Serote) and I will attempt to construct a literary image ofthe space ofthese cities under apartheid. A close reading of the texts selected will construct a clear picture of the current (and past) urban space through the medium of literature. It will be seen that major issues affecting South Africa's city inhabitants emerge as themes: AIDS, crime, migration and architectural degradation drive these narratives as does access to once restricted space. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter One 4 Chapter Two 30 Chapter Three 73 Conclusion 104 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: Michel FoucauIt ("Buffalo Report" 1971) 5 Figure 2: Diagram ofa panopticon (http://www.arch.columbia.edu 2005) 7 Figure 3: Michel de Certeau (The Practice ofEveryday Life: Vo!. 2 1998) 16 Figure4: Walking in the city (Stock Xchng 2005) 17 Figure 5: WaIter Benjamin (The Arcades Project 2002) 19 Figure 6: Theflaneur (http://spacing.ca 2005) 21 Figure 7: Paris street (The Arcades Project 2002) 24 .Figure 8: Aerial view ofDurban's Point Area (Wikipedia 2005) 37 Figure 9: Johan van Wyk (KZN Literary Map 2005) 41 Figure 10: Van Wyk ("Man Bitch" 2002) 43 Figure 11: Costa's bar ("Man Bitch" 2002) 49 Figure 12: The view from van Wyk's flat ("Man Bitch" 2002) 50 Figure 13: An inner-city street ofDurban ("Man Bitch" 2002) 53 Figure 14: The author in front ofhis flat ("Man Bitch" 2002) 61 Figure 15: Phaswane Mpe ("Sunday Times" 2002) 81 Figure 16: A street in Hillbrow (Wikipedia 2005) 89 Figure 17: Hillbrow children ("Hillbrow Kids" 1998) 94 Figure 18: Hillbrow cityscape (http://www.joburg.org.za 2005) 96 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to thank: • My supervisor Professor Lindy Stiebel for her guidance and patience. • Ashley, Helen, Ray, Brendan, Grant and Bridget. • The Literary Tourism in Kwazulu-Natal Project for funding. This is a National Research Foundation research project. The views expressed in this thesis are the author's and in no way represent the views ofthe National Research Foundation. • Graham Stewart for sourcing Man Bitch; lames Stewart for the use of stills from his documentary. Introduction Place is the "focus of human experience, memory, desire and identity" (Barker 2000:291). Place is a social construct, can be read through text and is also constructed through text. Increasingly, in postcolonial theories of literature, space / place is seen as important. I would argue, following this, that space and place are crucial determining factors in any literary study. Through reference to theories of construction of place as well as writings on spatial history and the city, I will show how place is created through text and how the urban environment impacts on literary production. Through an examination ofthe work ofMicheI Foucault (1986, 2002) on space and power, Michel de Certeau's approach to cities (2002) and Waiter Benjamin's (2002) theories on space and time I will attempt an analysis of place in chosen pieces of literature set in the postapartheid city by selected writers. I will also be looking at South African approaches to space and the city and will draw upon the work collected in Blank - Architecture, Apartheid and After (Vladislavic and Judin 1998), Senses of Culture: South African culture studies (Nuttall and Michael 2000), as well as an issue of the journal Public Culture (2004) which deals with Johannesburg. By analysing literary space, a spatial history of a place can be established. Spatial histories allow us to read social, economic and material factors that influence cultural and literary construction. Thus, space can be used as a tool of analysis. By reading the spatial histories of urban narratives, I will track the transformation of two South African cities post-1994 and their representation in selected texts. I have chosen to focus on the cities of Durban and Johannesburg, and in particular the inner-cities, because it is here, in my opinion, that major transformation in the use and representation of space has occurred. By looking at postapartheid texts I will be able to analyse how the representation of literary space has altered with political and socio-economic changes. The time period I will look at is the postapartheid period ofthe late 1990's and early 2000's. The interdisciplinary nature of this project means I will draw from various disciplines such as literary theory, cultural geography, sociology and history. 1 Through the selected texts I will attempt to investigate the representation of urban space in postapartheid South African literature. A close reading of the texts highlights some of the issues affecting South Africa's inner-cities and constructs a clear picture of a current (and past) urban space. Major issues affecting South Africa's city inhabitants emerge as themes: AIDS, crime, migration and architectural degradation drive these narratives, but so too does access to once restricted space. A comparison between the texts becomes a comparison between two cities, Johannesburg and Durban, and their fictionalised constructions by the selected writers. Texts chosen to represent the postapartheid Durban inner-city are Man Bitch (2001) by Johan van Wyk together with Never Been At Home (2001) by Zazah P. Khuzwayo and No Way Out (2001) by Zinhle Carol Mdakane. These texts have been chosen because of their interconnectedness - these writers formed a group Iiving and working in a specific area of inner-Durban in the later 1990's. Their texts thus speak to each other and points of comparison can be fruitfully drawn. To discuss postapartheid Johannesburg, I have chosen to look at Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001) by Phaswane Mpe and the short story "Autopsy" (1996) by Ivan Vladislavic. These texts provide an interesting 'echo' of each others' concerns while simultaneously allowing us room for comparison between the white and black experiences of the city Johannesburg. A close reading of all these texts reveals a 'new' South Africa far from the ideal portrayed by politicians. Writers and place are inextricably connected and I am interested in the movement between the two. Through this thesis, I will explore how the city can be read as text as well as being a factor in the production ofthe selected texts. I am particularly interested in the experience of African, urban space and how it is represented in literature. The transformative nature of the city allows us to view how the social project of a new South Africa is connected to the reality of life on the streets.
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