ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia 131 Editores Rolf Lundén, Merja Kytö & Monica Correa Fryckste
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ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia 131 Editores Rolf Lundén, Merja Kytö & Monica Correa Fryckstedt Christina Cullhed Grappling with Patriarchies Narrative Strategies of Resistance in Miriam Tlali’s Writings Dissertation in English presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Geijersalen, Humanistiskt Centrum, Thunbergsvägen 3L, Uppsala, on Saturday, May 13, 2006 at 10:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Abstract Cullhed, C. 2006. Grappling with Patriarchies. Narrative Strategies of Resistance in Miriam Tlali's Writings. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia 131. 233 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 91-554-6516-1. This study is the first one devoted solely to the writings of the South African black novelist Miriam Tlali. It argues that her works constitute literary resistance not only to apartheid, noted by previous scholars, but also to South African patriarchies. Examining Tlali’s novels Muriel at Metropolitan (1975) and Amandla! (1980), and several short stories from Mihloti (1984) and Footprints in the Quag (1989), the study pits these texts against the black literary tradition dominated by men and also reads them within the social context of South African patriarchies, with its social restrictions on women and its taboos concerning sexualities. To distance herself from the patriarchal values inherent in the male literary tradition and to negotiate social and sexual restrictions on women, I argue, Tlali deploys narrative strategies like generic difference, generic dialogism, a double-voiced discourse, “whispering,” and “distancing.” Drawing on the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin and Julia Kristeva, this study first explores “novelistic” traits in Muriel which function both to resist male literary conventions, like the epic mode of narrative, and to criticise their patriarchal ideology. Second, relying on Bakhtin, it analyses the generic dialogism and double-voicedness in Amandla!. Finally, making use of Kristeva’s semiotics and her theory of sacrifice, the study traces the development of a sacrificial discourse of gendered violence from Amandla! to some of Tlali’s short stories. Supported by Martha J. Reinecke’s explication of Kristeva, I show that Tlali’s texts insist that gendered violence upholds the sacrificial economies of both patriarchal apartheid and African patriarchy. The strategies of “whispering” and “distancing,” I claim, surface in Tlali’s addressing of the sensitive issues of black women’s victimisation and gendered violence. “Whispering” entails muting the criticism of the perpetrators of gendered violence, whereas “distancing” results in dis/placing gendered violence on the margins of the community. This study also examines the literary/social context of Tlali’s oeuvre: it explores specific traits of the South African black literary tradition, how the issue of rape has been addressed there, and the depiction of African patriarchy in autobiographies by South African black women. Keywords: South African literature, narrative strategies, patriarchy, the black literary tradition, novelization, dialogism, fragmentation, gendered violence, sacrifice, rape, discursive taboo, whispering, distancing, Miriam Tlali Christina Cullhed, Department of English, Box 527, Uppsala University, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden © Christina Cullhed 2006 ISSN 0562-2719 ISBN 91-554-6516-1 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-6762 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-6762) Cover illustration: Christina Cullhed Printed in Sweden by Elanders Gotab, Stockholm 2006 Distributor: Uppsala University Library, Box 510, SE-751 20 Uppsala www.uu.se, [email protected] To Eva and Kerstin CONTENTS Acknowledgements.........................................................................................9 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................11 Critical Context ........................................................................................14 Aim and Method.......................................................................................16 Historical Background..............................................................................22 Patriarchy .................................................................................................25 Patriarchies in South Africa .....................................................................30 South African Patriarchies in Black Women’s Writing ...........................32 Critical Narrative and Structure ...............................................................43 CHAPTER ONE Novelization in Muriel at Metropolitan........................................................47 Introduction ..............................................................................................47 The Black Male Literary Tradition ..........................................................53 Genealogy and Mutation ..........................................................................60 Novelization .............................................................................................69 Narrating “Personal Experience and Thought” ...................................71 Realizing a “Multi-Languaged Consciousness” ..................................73 New “Temporal Co-Ordinates”: Modernity as Resistance to the Epic79 Resisting Patriarchal Stereotype, the ‘Spectacular,’ and Escapism.....85 Avoiding Woman as Symbol...............................................................90 Resisting the ‘Something’ of Motherhood...........................................93 Conclusion................................................................................................98 CHAPTER TWO Dialogic Fragmentation in Amandla!..........................................................100 Introduction ............................................................................................100 Genealogy..........................................................................................107 Critical Context..................................................................................110 Dialogic Fragmentation .....................................................................111 Terminology ......................................................................................114 A Double-Voiced Domestic Discourse ..................................................117 A Dialogue of Generic Discourses.........................................................128 African Black Male Literature in South Africa .................................129 The Domestic Discourse and Political Rhetoric................................134 The Heroic Tale and Political Rhetoric .............................................139 The Domestic Discourse and the Action Thriller ..............................142 The Domestic Discourse and the Love Story ....................................145 Political Rhetoric and the Love Story................................................148 Conclusion..............................................................................................151 CHAPTER THREE Developing a Sacrificial Discourse on Gendered Violence........................153 Introduction ............................................................................................153 The Taboo on Sexual Discourse........................................................157 A Theory of Sacrificial Violence.......................................................162 Gendered Violence in South Africa and the Black Literary Tradition ............................................................................................169 ‘Whispering’ in Public: Gendered Violence in Tlali’s Narratives of Sacrifice..................................................................................................176 Domestic Violence, Whispering, and Sacrifice in Amandla! and “Mm’a-Lithoto”.................................................................................178 Sexual Harassment/Rape, Distancing and Sacrifice in “Detour into Detention,” “Fud-u-u-a!” and “Devil at a Dead End” .......................182 Sacrifice, Patriarchy and the Complicity of Black Women in “’Masechaba’s Erring ‘Child’”..........................................................192 Conclusion..............................................................................................205 CONCLUSION...........................................................................................208 Works Cited ................................................................................................214 Index............................................................................................................224 Acknowledgements My interest in South Africa is not newly acquired; South Africa is the coun- try where I was born and where I spent fourteen of the most formative years of my childhood and youth. The country has therefore become an inextrica- ble part of me, and I thank my adventurous parents posthumously for giving me this early experience and South Africa for harbouring me during these years. Apartheid, of course, made my relationship to the country a painful one; the constant frustration at being kept away from people with different cultural backgrounds and the despondency I felt at my inability to make a difference were constant companions. Perhaps, my thesis work has been one way of bridging the gap that was forced on us. Initially, therefore, I want to thank Ms. Miriam Tlali for her generosity