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APPRAISING THE COUNTERPOINT: Bifocal Readings of Literary Landscapes in the American Renaissance and Post-Apartheid South Africa Cleo Beth Theron Dissertation presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of the Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University Supervisors: Dr Megan Jones and Dr Dawid de Villiers March 2021 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za DECLARATION By submitting this dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. Date: 12 October 2020 Copyright © 2021 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za ABSTRACT This study constitutes an experimental bifocal reading that was prompted by historical and literary parallels and convergences between the United States and South Africa. In particular, the study demonstrates several thematic similarities between literature produced during the “American Renaissance” in the mid-nineteenth century and post-apartheid South Africa. Bifocalism is based on conceptions of world literature as 1) a domain that brings into contact texts from different geographical contexts, and 2) a mode of reading comparatively. Bifocalism is employed in conjunction with Edward Said’s characterisation of contrapuntalism, a means to reappraise long-standing interpretations or bring to the fore subtle or occluded features of one text through a reading of another placed alongside it. Each chapter is devoted to a textual pairing that is based on similarities between the socio-historical contexts of the American Renaissance and the post-apartheid period. Chapter One looks at Margaret Fuller’s Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 (1844) and Julia Martin’s A Millimetre of Dust: Visiting Ancestral Sites (2008), two female-authored travel narratives that engage with the effects of European expansion on the frontier and the resultant displacement of indigenous communities. Chapter Two focuses on inherited land among descendants of European settlers and the legacies of political and judicial injustices that helped to construct whites’ occupation of the land as a given while eliding the presence of those who inhabited the land before them. It analyses Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Gothic story, The House of the Seven Gables (1851), and Michiel Heyns’s translation of Marlene van Niekerk’s Afrikaans plaasroman, Agaat (2006). Chapter Three concerns myths of paradisiacal landscapes, how these are employed to legitimise claims of landownership and how mixed bloodlines complicate such claims in its reading of William Wells Brown’s Clotel; or, the President’s Daughter (1853) and Zoë Wicomb’s David’s Story (2000). Chapter Four analyses Frederick Douglass’ slave narrative My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and Aziz Hassim’s historical novel Revenge of Kali (2009) to compare depictions of imported labour. The chapter juxtaposes Douglass’ view on slavery and Hassim’s depiction of indentured labour to compare their texts’ representations of national belonging for those who worked on plantations. The bifocal readings are anchored in the significant body of comparative work that has already been done on American and South African society and literature. Attention to these literary contexts reveals that they have in common concerted efforts to put in writing the circumstances of a purportedly new nation built on the principles of democracy. I argue that such attempts are frequently addressed in these two eras by means of the motifs of land and landscape (the latter being the aesthetic configuration of the former). I analyse how land, as a deeply contested phenomenon in both countries in the periods under consideration, is used by writers to depict national struggles pertaining to democracy, national newness, identity and belonging. Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za OPSOMMING Hierdie studie konstitueer experimentele bifokale leeswerk wat aangespoor is deur verskeie historiese and literêre parallelle en samevloeiings tussen die Verenigde State en Suid-Afrika. Spesifiek demonstreer die studie verskeie tematiese ooreenkomste tussen literatuur wat gedurende die “Amerikaanse Renaissance” in die middel van die negentiende eeu geskep is, en literatuur wat in Suid-Afrika ná apartheid die lig gesien het. Bifokaliteit hou verband met sienings oor wêreldliteratuur, synde 1) ’n domein wat tekste uit verskillende maatskaplike en geografiese kontekste met mekaar in aanraking bring, en 2) ’n vorm van vergelykende lees. In samehang met bifokaliteit span ek Edward Said se kontrapuntale benadering in om subtiele of verborge kenmerke van een teks te openbaar deur ’n ander teks daarnaas te lees. Elke hoofstuk word gewy aan ’n tekstuele paring op grond van ooreenkomste tussen die sosio-historiese kontekste van die Amerikaanse Renaissance en die tydperk ná apartheid. Hoofstuk Een bestudeer Margaret Fuller se Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 (1844) en Julia Martin se A Millimetre of Dust: Visiting Ancestral Sites (2008) – albei reisverhale deur vroue wat die uitwerking van Europese uitbreiding na nuwe grondgebiede, en die gevolglike ontworteling van inheemse gemeenskappe, onder die loep neem. Hoofstuk Twee handel oor aansprake op erfgrond onder afstammelinge van Europese setlaars, en die nalatenskap van politieke en geregtelike onreg wat witmense se besetting van die grond as ’n gegewe help konstrueer het, terwyl die teenwoordigheid van diegene wat die grond vóór hulle bewoon het, weggelaat word. Hierdie hoofstuk ontleed Nathaniel Hawthorne se Gotiese verhaal The House of the Seven Gables (1851) en Michiel Heyns se vertaling van Marlene van Niekerk se Afrikaanse plaasroman Agaat (2006). Hoofstuk Drie konsentreer op die mites van paradysagtige landskappe, hoe dít gebruik word om aansprake van grondeienaarskap te staaf, en hoe gemengde bloedlyne sulke aansprake kompliseer. Dít geskied aan die hand van ’n studie van William Wells Brown se Clotel; or, the President’s Daughter (1853) en Zoë Wicomb se David’s Story (2000). Hoofstuk Vier ontleed Frederick Douglass se slaweverhaal My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) en Aziz Hassim se historiese roman Revenge of Kali (2009) om uitbeeldings van ingevoerde arbeid te vergelyk. Die hoofstuk plaas Douglass se siening van slawerny en Hassim se beskrywing van ingeboekte arbeiders naas mekaar om die voorstelling van nasionale verbondenheid onder plantasiewerkers in hulle tekste te vergelyk. Die bifokale leeswerk is geanker in die beduidende lot vergelykende werk wat reeds oor die Amerikaanse en Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing en literatuur gedoen is. ’n Studie van hierdie twee literêre kontekste bring aan die lig dat, ondanks aansienlike verskille wat geografiese en historiese beskouings betref, albei gekenmerk word deur doelgerigte pogings om die omstandighede te beskryf van ’n veronderstelde nuwe nasie wat op die beginsels van demokrasie gebou is. Ek voer aan dat hierdie pogings dikwels in hierdie twee eras tot uiting kom in die motiewe van land en landskap (met laasgenoemde die abstrakte voorstelling van eersgenoemde). Ek neem waar dat land(skap), waarin etlike simboliese betekenisse vir verskillende kulturele en etniese groepe opgesluit lê, in albei kontekste in ’n metonimiese verwantskap teenoor die nasie staan. Ek ontleed hoe land (grond), wat in die betrokke tydperke in albei kontekste ’n uiters omstrede verskynsel is, deur skrywers gebruik word om ’n nasie se stryd met demokrasie, nasionale nuutheid, identiteit en verbondenheid uit te beeld. Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my supervisors, Dr Megan Jones and Dr Dawid de Villiers, for being generous with their advice and their time, and for being enthusiastic about my work. I am also thankful for my parents’ endless support. This dissertation, with all the love I put into it, is dedicated to them. And since it is inspired by my love of stories, this work is also dedicated to Zach and Ross, with the hope that they will one day find beauty, wonder and inspiration in books as well. Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za CONTENTS Introduction Narrativising Landscapes: The United States and South Africa Compared 1 Chapter One Imprints of Indigenes, Kinship, and the Optics of Settlement: Reading Traces on the Frontier in Summer on the Lakes and A Millimetre of Dust 20 Chapter Two Incriminating Deeds and Forgotten Plots: The Burden of Landedness in The House of the Seven Gables and Agaat 4 5 Chapter Three Literary Geneses: Family Trees and Edenic Gardens in William Wells Brown’s Clotel and Zoë Wicomb’s David’s Story 6 7 Chapter Four “Born out of Bondage”: Carceral Plantations, Freedom and the Cultivation of National Belonging in My Bondage and My Freedom and Revenge of Kali 9 0 Conclusion Reading Bifocally 116 Works Cited 127 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za 1 INTRODUCTION Narrativising Landscapes: The United States and South Africa Compared American literature produced in the mid-nineteenth century, a period that came to be known as the “American Renaissance,” reflects the attitude that while emergent literature had to represent the nation’s ostensible greatness, this depended upon the presence of a substantial national literature. Early writers of the
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