The Beloved and Other Monsters: Biopolitics and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation in Post-1994 South African Literature by Veronica A. Blackbourn A thesis submitted to the Department of English Language and Literature In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen‘s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada (December, 2010) Copyright © Veronica A. Blackbourn, 2010 Abstract This dissertation examines the use of inter-racial relationships as emblems of political reconciliation in South African fiction from and about the transition from apartheid to democracy. Positive representations of the relationships that apartheid prohibited would seem to constitute a rejection of apartheid itself, but through an analysis of novels by Lewis DeSoto, Elleke Boehmer, Zoë Wicomb, Marlene van Niekerk, Ivan Vladislavić, and J.M. Coetzee, I argue that the trope of the redemptive inter-racial relationship in fact reinscribes what Foucault would designate a biopolitical obsession with race as a foundational construct of the nation. Chapter 2 examines an attempt to write against the legacy of apartheid by repurposing the quintessentially South African genre of the plaasroman, but Lewis DeSoto‘s A Blade of Grass (2003) fails to reverse the narrative effects created by the plaasroman structure, implicated as the plaasroman is and has been in a biopolitical framework. Chapter 3 examines Elleke Boehmer‘s rewriting of South African history to insist on the genealogical ―truth‖ of the racial mixing of the country and its inhabitants, but Bloodlines (2000) yet retains the obsession with racial constructs that it seeks to dispute. Zoë Wicomb‘s Playing in the Light (2006), meanwhile, invokes genealogical ―truth‖ as a corrective to apartheid constructions of race, but ultimately disallows the possibility of genealogical and historical narratives as correctives rather than continuations of apartheid. Chapter 4 discusses the structure of Marlene van Niekerk‘s Triomf (published in Afrikaans in 1994; English translation 1999) as a collage of Afrikaner nationalist narratives, narratives of trauma, and narratives of inter-racial reconciliation that is able to put powerful local tropes on display while simultaneously preventing their reinscription. ii - Chapter 5 argues for a turn away from the bonds of affect symbolized by the inter- racial relationship as the basis of the nation in favour of an attention to justice. Readings of Ivan Vladislavić‘s The Restless Supermarket (2001) and J. M. Coetzee‘s Disgrace (1999) substitute for the romance of the inter-racial relationship the exigencies of the South African philosophy of ubuntu and of the duty to justice posed by the figure of the monstrous neighbour. iii - Acknowledgements I am deeply indebted to many people for their support and encouragement throughout the writing of this dissertation. My supervisor, Chris Bongie, has been a careful reader of my work, and I could not have completed this project without his help and advice. In many ways I owe whatever success I have had to him. Rosemary Jolly, my second reader, first introduced me to South African literature and encouraged me to pursue my interest in it. I have often had cause to be grateful for her astute comments. I could not have asked for a more generous, rigorous, and inspiring external examiner than Helene Strauss. She did me the compliment of asking the big questions; I will continue to ponder her comments for a good time to come. Jill Scott was a gracious reader and examiner, and Catherine Hoeniger was a solicitous chair for the defence committee. I thank the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for their financial support. The Graduate Dean‘s Doctoral Field Travel Grant made it possible for me to travel to South Africa, where many scholars gave generously of their time to speak with me about my project, including Louise Viljoen, Meg Samuelson, Dan Wylie, Sam Raditlhalo, and Carrol Clarkson. Mike Marais was kind enough to introduce me to the Grahamstown dining scene, and it was Lucy Graham who first suggested that Foucault‘s biopolitics might offer a useful conceptual framework. The staff of the National English Literary Museum not only helped me immeasurably with my research, but also made me feel welcome and made sure I was included in tea-time. Hira Parshotam, Raju Parshotam, Bhavna Parshotam, and Jayshree Narandas were gracious hosts in Durban; S‘duduziwe Zulu showed me the sights. I would have seen a lot less of Cape Town but for the kind attentions of Jessica Park and Jeanine Cameron. iv - As an undergraduate student, it was Elizabeth Hanson who taught me think. Like Elizabeth, Laura Murray always insisted that I not be satisfied with easy answers, and both Laura and Elizabeth have shaped my life for the better as mentors and as friends. Erika Behrisch Elce has been instrumental in quite literally keeping my body and soul together— she has been a good boss, a good reader, and an even better friend. Asha Varadharajan listened to me when I was in the depths of despair and needed advice. Helen Tiffin encouraged me tirelessly, and I consider Helen‘s departure from Kingston my own personal tragedy. Without Kathy Goodfriend, both my life and the English Department in general would be in shambles, and I‘m also grateful to the students of ENGL 384 for reminding me why literary scholarship can matter. Sheetal Lodhia has been a close and dear friend; without her love and support I shudder to think where I would be. Dana Olwan has always given me the goods on various issues, along with much kindness and love, and Breanne Oryschak has always put things in their proper perspective. I am terribly grateful to the past and present members of Dinner Club, i.e. Carolyn Johanson, Mico Devos, Marney McDiarmid, Irene Zouros, Helen Markellos, Heather Home, Kristiana Clemens, Kate Hallemeier and Sarah Wiseman, for giving me—and demanding in turn—elaborate meals based on outrageous themes each month, and for forming my social spine in Kingston. Dinner Club can accomplish anything. Dinner Club will take over the world. Colleen Shea has always had my back, and frequently has also had my dinner waiting and my next book ready to read. Sandy Bugeja was my ―pitmate‖ in the M.A. and has kept me company ever since. Tiffany Jones brought a much- needed Afrikaans dictionary all the way from South Africa. Miho, Naoko, Ptery, Toshi, Sayo, Junko, and two batches of kittens have reminded me each day to enjoy the simple things. Thanks are also due to Brandon Alakas, Lindsey Banco, Rosa Barker, Jason Boulet, Susan v - Cahill, Ralph Callebert, Eric Carlson, Caitlin Charman, Cheryl Cundell, Lisa Davidson, Heather Emmens, Jennifer Esmail, Claire Ezzedin, Cara Fabre, Junko Ide, Sayyida Jaffer, Paul Kelly, Ellie Kennedy, Sadiqa Khan, Larissa Liepins, Susan Lord, Krystle Maki, Deanna Mason, Erin Milliken, Sara Mueller, Taeko Odagiri, Kiley Rider, Amy Rutherford, Raji Singh Soni, Chiyomi Yamaguchi, Takako Yamaguchi, Yuko Yamaguchi, Trina Ziemeckis, and my former colleagues at the Writing Centre. Finally, my family has loved and supported me in every conceivable way and I owe them everything. I am truly grateful to my mother Senta Blackbourn, my sisters Barbara Griese and Karen Blackbourn, my brothers-in-law Eric Griese and Ben van Dyk, and ―Uncle‖ Bob and ―Auntie‖ Barbara Putnam. This dissertation is dedicated to my grandmother, Anna Kreutzinger, and especially to my father, Anthony Blackbourn. vi - Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vii Chapter 1. Introduction: Post-1994 South Africa and the apartheid imagination 1 1.1 National allegories and foundational fictions 10 Chapter 2. ―As jy aan my simbole vat, vat jy aan my‖: sex, space and biopolitics in A Blade of Grass 24 2.1 Biopolitics and the Voortrekker Monument 27 2.2 A Blade of Grass and the biopolitics of the plaasroman 33 Chapter 3. Genealogy and access to history in Bloodlines and Playing in the Light 58 3.1 History and genealogy in Bloodlines 60 3.2 Unredemptive discovery in Playing in the Light 76 Chapter 4. Collage as critique in Marlene Van Niekerk‘s Triomf 99 4. 1 Cycles of trauma 104 4. 2 Triomf‘s linear narrative and the parody of the biopolitical 113 4.3 Collage and the episodic as para-space 123 Chapter 5. Smashing the rainbow in the face 135 5.1 Ubuntu and the neighbour 139 5.2 The Restless Supermarket and the ethics of ubuntu 147 5.3 Disgrace and the ethics of proximity 160 Conclusion 174 Works Cited 180 vii - Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Post-1994 South Africa and the apartheid imagination Can we say that we have begun to grasp the full dimensions of the new country and new people that is struggling to give birth to itself, or are we still trapped in the multiple ghettoes of the apartheid imagination? Albie Sachs1 When the National Party (NP), the political party responsible for the establishment of apartheid in South Africa, was elected to power in 1948, the first law they enacted was the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949). The NP would continue to develop the formal foundations of apartheid through such legislation as the Immorality Act, the Group Areas Act, the Population Registration Act, the Suppression of Communism Act and other laws that created both conceptual and physical boundaries between the country‘s strenuously defined ―races,‖ but it is unsurprising that the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act should have inaugurated the ruling ―white‖ minority‘s grand project of creating and enforcing ―apartness.‖ 2 The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act was one of the first attempts by the apartheid government to create a decisive biological break in the population of South Africa as a whole, and in its—and, soon after, the Immorality Act‘s—focus on sexuality, it neatly encapsulates what, following Foucault, I designate the biopolitical foundations of apartheid: a determination to ―make live‖ the ―white‖—especially Afrikaner—population while ―letting 1―Preparing Ourselves for Freedom‖ (19).