DOCSLIB.ORG

Diplomarbeit / Diploma Thesis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Diplomarbeit / Diploma Thesis DIPLOMARBEIT / DIPLOMA THESIS Titel der Diplomarbeit / Title of the Diploma Thesis “‘How Can I Act Against My Own People?‘. Liberalism, Trauma, and Identity in South African Novels by Nadine Gordimer and André Brink“ verfasst von / submitted by Anna Lichtenegger angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Magistra der Philosophie (Mag.phil.) Wien, 2017 / Vienna, 2017 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / A 190 299 344 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Lehramtsstudium degree programme as it appears on UF Psychologie und Philosophie the student record sheet: UF Englisch Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ewald Mengel Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 2 2. Historical Context: South African Apartheid ......................................................................... 3 3. Liberalism ............................................................................................................................. 24 3.1 Anti-Apartheid Movements ............................................................................................ 27 3.2 White Liberalism and Dissidence .................................................................................. 30 4. Identity in South Africa ........................................................................................................ 40 4.1. Individual and Collective Identity ................................................................................. 40 4.2. National Identity ............................................................................................................ 46 5. Identity and Trauma ............................................................................................................. 47 6. Liberalism & Identity in South African Novels ................................................................... 54 6.1 The Authors .................................................................................................................... 54 6.2 A Dry White Season by André Brink ............................................................................. 57 6.2.1 Plot & Context ......................................................................................................... 57 6.2.2 The Portrayal of Liberalism .................................................................................... 59 6.2.3 Inter-racial Relationships ........................................................................................ 64 6.2.4 Liberalism & Identity .............................................................................................. 66 6.2.5 Possibilities, Consequences and Limits of White Liberalism ................................. 67 6.3 An Act of Terror by André Brink ................................................................................... 75 6.3.1 Plot & Context ......................................................................................................... 75 6.3.2 The Portrayal of Liberalism .................................................................................... 76 6.3.3 Inter-racial Relationships ........................................................................................ 84 6.3.4 Liberalism & Identity .............................................................................................. 86 6.3.5 Possibilities, Consequences and Limits of White Liberalism ................................. 90 6.4 The Late Bourgeoise World by Nadine Gordimer ......................................................... 95 6.4.1 Plot & Context ......................................................................................................... 95 6.4.2 The Portrayal of Liberalism .................................................................................... 96 6.4.3 Inter-racial Relationships ...................................................................................... 102 6.4.4 Liberalism & Identity ............................................................................................ 104 6.4.5 Possibilities, Consequences and Limits of White Liberalism ............................... 106 6.5 Burger’s Daughter by Nadine Gordimer ...................................................................... 111 6.5.1 Plot & Context ....................................................................................................... 111 6.5.2 The Portrayal of Liberalism .................................................................................. 113 6.5.3 Inter-racial Relationships ...................................................................................... 118 6.5.4 Liberalism & Identity ............................................................................................ 120 6.5.5 Possibilities, Consequences and Limits of White Liberalism ............................... 125 7. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 131 References .............................................................................................................................. 134 List of Figures & Tables ......................................................................................................... 138 Index ....................................................................................................................................... 139 Declaration of Authorship ...................................................................................................... 141 Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 142 Acknowledgements This thesis only exists in its current form due to the support of several people. First and foremost, I offer my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ewald Mengel, whose support and guidance from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop not only a first interest in South African literature but also a deeper understanding of the subject. I would also like to thank my family for supporting and encouraging me throughout all my years at school and university. Finally, I owe my deepest gratitude to my partner, Dominik Hölbling. You were always there cheering me up and stood by me through the good times and bad. This thesis would not exist without you. Thank you. 1 1. Introduction From 1948 to 1994 South Africa was a split nation. Demanding the separate development of the four racial groups, white, black, coloured, and Indian, and discriminating all non-whites, Apartheid and the crimes committed in the name of its racist ideology left the country deeply traumatized and in crisis (South African History Online; Eagle & Kaminer). While a strong resistance movement developed already in the early years of apartheid, white dissidents were rare and often isolated. As the majority of the hegemonic white group supported South Africa’s racist National Party (NP) government (Zalusky 83), several white dissidents felt excluded from their social group(s) due to their liberal attitude. The term ‘liberalism’ itself denotes the fight for the global values of freedom of choice, human dignity, and equality of the law (MacDonald 25); liberals thus strived for the right of all individuals to realise their liberty, aims, and preference without limiting the liberty of their fellow human beings. Apartheid, however, contradicts this principle, as it forces the scarification of “the good of some to the greater good of others” (Hudson 95). Despite white liberals’ high aspirations, their ideology was at times considered problematic by both whites and non-whites due to various reasons (cf. Woods 184- 185, MacDonald 24-25, Lazerson 4). Their resulting outsider position in society (Louw- Potgieter 32-33) raises several interesting questions with regard to their feeling of belonging, identity (or identities), as well as to the psychological and sociological effects of their activities. Here, literature provides one of the few possibilities to gain access to the world of white liberals (F. Welsh 472-473), who frequently risked their life supporting the freedom struggle of others. Therefore, the aim of this diploma thesis is to answer the following research questions by analysing four selected novels by André Brink and Nadine Gordimer: • How are the experiences of white liberals presented in the novels? • What possibilities and consequences of political opposition by Afrikaners are represented? • Where are the limits of the character’s liberalism? • How is the identity of the liberals, as well as their close relations affected by their liberalism? • What image of inter-racial relationships is provided? • In how far is liberalism presented as traumatizing (for liberals and/or close friends, family, etc.)? In order to provide answers to these questions, first, the historical context of South African apartheid will be reviewed. Afterwards, an overview of South African anti-apartheid movements shall be given, with particular focus on the aims, movements, and limits of white liberalism. The next section explores identity and identity formation in the context of South 2 Africa
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Introduction 1
    NOTES Introduction 1. Mhlawuli’s testimony at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing in East London on April 16, 1996, reads as follows: “[T]hat hand, we still want it. We know we have buried them, but really to have the hand which is said to be in a bottle in Port Elizabeth, we would like to get the hand. Thank you” (32). The transcript of the proceedings is avail- able online at http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/hrvtrans/hrvel1/calata.htm See also Krog (Country 45). 2. See, for instance, Krog (Country), Samuelson (Remembering), Sanders (Ambiguities), Slaughter and Liatsos, among others. 3. On Tutu and South Africa as the rainbow family of God, see Irlam (“Unraveling” 695). On the use of family rhetoric—and particularly the development of a “queer” family romance during the democratic transi- tion—see Munro. 4. South African scholarship often defines the “transition” narrowly as the years between the unbanning of the ANC in 1990 and the first demo- cratic elections in 1994, the establishment of the Constitution in 1996, or the end of the Human Rights Violations TRC hearings in 1998, although it can encompass the turn of the millenium. (See for instance Ronit Frenkel and Craig MacKenzie’s definition of a “post-transitional” phase in English South African literature.) I propose a more extended frame in order to trace the reverberations of the policies of these earlier years as they get worked through in wider culture. It seems to me that the main goal of the early transition, which Mbembe (“Democracy” 6) sug- gests was the creation of a historically responsive political order based on equality and an affirmation of “human mutuality,” remained the guid- ing principle through the first two administrations, with massive tears in the vision becoming visible by the end of Mbeki’s rule.
    [Show full text]
  • André Brink's an Act of Terror
    Re-writing history: André Brink’s An Act of Terror (1991) and On the Contrary (1993) Louise Viljoen Department of Afrikaans & Dutch University of Stellenbosch STELLENBOSCH Abstract Re-writing history: André Brink’s A n A ct o f Terror (1991) and On the Contrary (1993) This article analyses the two different approaches to history and its representation demonstrated in Brink’s novels An Act o f Terror (1991) and On the Contrary (1993) in terms o f a response to the controversial influence o f postmodernism on the historical novel in South Africa today. Although the first o f these two novels, An Act o f Terror, hints at the complexities o f representation in historiography and fiction, it ultimately chooses against a postmodernist view of history, preferring to interpret and represent history in terms of an over-arching metanarrative and a stable subject because it facilitates effective political action. The article then argues that the second of these novels, On the Contrary, can be read as an affirmation of the postmodernist view o f history, especially when seen as an example o f that variant of postmodernist historical fiction called “uchronian fiction ” (Wesseling, 1991). Because uchronian fiction (the result o f a cross-fertilization between historical fiction and science fiction) reconstructs the past in such as way as to propose possibilities for the transformation of future societies, On the Contrary can also be read as a politically responsible novel, thus confirming the view that postmodernism has a political dimension. 1. Introduction An important aspect of the historical novel in South Africa today is the often contested, but nevertheless persistent influence of postmodernism on most of the issues involved like history, representation, language, subjectivity and narrative (see Viljoen, 1993).
    [Show full text]
  • Andre Brink's White Female Anti-Apartheid Rebels Isidore Diala
    Andre Brink's White Female Anti-Apartheid Rebels Isidore Diala Roben Young has argued that the attempt at the decolonization of European thought, especially of historiography, is characteristic of modernism ( 1990: 118). Locating the basic intellectual inspiration of this post World War ll anti-colonization in Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, Young writes that given Fanon's insight that history is man's creation, Fanon's work demonstrates the objectification and condemnation to immobility and silence of the men and women who are the objects of that history (120). The great irony, Young laments, is that humanism, exalted among the highest values of European c ivilization, provided the justification for colonial appro­ priation, excluding the "native" and "women" from its highly po­ liticized category of ··man•· ( 12 1). Andre Brink, himself an Afrikaner, has offered a sustained insight into the Afrikaner establjshment's creations of myths to jus­ tify the objectification and thus dehumanization of the Black Other. In the Brink oeuvre, for the White as well as for the Black, the recog­ nition of the common humanity of all men is treated as the attainment of a revolutionary political consciousness. Brink equally presents rebellion against apartheid as an affumation of humanity. But Andre Brink, who treats apartheid as the will to power raised to a tribal level, has also noted: " Racism almost invariably goes with male chauvinism-it's why I've been fascinated in several books by the relationship between a white woman and a black man. Part of what draws them together is the common experience of oppression" ( 1963: 8).
    [Show full text]
  • A Chain of Voices: the Prose Oeuvre of André Brink Godfrey Meintjes
    A Chain of Voices: The Prose Oeuvre of André Brink Godfrey Meintjes And perhaps someone will hear us calling out, all these voices in the great silence, all of us together, each one for ever alone. A Chain of Voices Prof Christie Roode described the late Prof André Philippus Brink as ‘something which appears on the horizon from time to time, illuminating the whole world around him… who causes other people to look at the world in a different way, challenging conventions and norms and simply refusing to go with the flow” (Encounters p15). Professor André Brink was a remarkable academic and scholar; he was a legendary university teacher; he significantly contributed to theatre and particularly to Afrikaans theatre; he made a monumental contribution to and changed the Afrikaans landscape of literary criticism; he was a relentless political activist fighting for the freedom of the individual; he was a prolific translator; he was a fiction writer of international stature; he was a Renaissance person in the true sense of the word… and he was a good and kind and considerate friend. I would have liked to interrogate each of these claims but the 50 min at my disposal clearly would make this possible. I have therefore chosen to pay tribute to a remarable writer by allowing the chain of voices in his oeuvre to speak for themselves. And, unless I quote Prof André Brink from interviews, any references in this lecture refer to André Brink the “implied author” as defined by Booth (1961). The Oeuvre The late twentieth-century reader lives in a reader-centered world.
    [Show full text]
  • Paulina Grze˛Da University of Warsaw NOVEL of TRANSITION
    Paulina Grze˛da University of Warsaw NOVEL OF TRANSITION: COUNTER-NARRATIVES IN ANDRE´ BRINK’S IMAGININGS OF SAND Abstract Examining the preoccupation with history in contemporary South African fiction, this article focuses on the way Andre´ Brink undertook the task of imaginatively rewriting South African past in his first post-apartheid novel, Imaginings of Sand. It explores a variety of counter-narratives to the dominant historical discourse of the country’s violent past that the text offers and seeks to inscribe the novel into the wider context of South African literature of transition. Contrary to what a number of literary critics have asserted, the article sets out to prove that far from claiming any form of ideological primacy, Imaginings of Sand and its counter-narratives, through a variety of subversive and contestational techniques, not only encourage the reader to deconstruct the dominant historical discourse of South African past but also undermine reliability of any type of historical or literary discourse whatsoever. Following the final demise of apartheid in South Africa dramatic changes in the political, social and economic sphere have given rise to an urge to reassess the past in an attempt to come to terms with a past identity that no longer fitted the transformed historical context. Whereas on the socio- political level the task of critically engaging with history was undertaken by the hearings conducted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), in the socio-cultural sphere it was literature, among many other forms of cultural production, that played this crucial role of rereading and rewriting the country’s traumatic past.
    [Show full text]