Forms of Community Service: Guy Butler's Literary Contributions
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FORMS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE: GUY BUTLER'S LITERARY CONTRIBUTIONS by Anthony Vincent George Akal Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English, UNIVERSITY OF NATAL SEPTEMBER 2003 (i) ABSTRACT Guy Butler (1918-2001) was one of South Africa's most prolific English writers. His work extended across several genres. He has hitherto been seen by his critics in terms of neat binaries: Marxists versus liberals, Negritudinists versus 'colonials'. In this study it is argued that a modification of these polarised positions is necessary. Butler's own position is simultaneously one of Oxford scholar and Karoo son, engaged with both the challenges and difficulties of 'local habitation'. By testing these oppositions against the concepts of 'past significance' and 'present praxis' I suggest that Butler is neither simply transcendental nor socially committed, neither simply international nor local. In taking advantage of a 'freer' perspective succeeding the 'struggle' decades in South Africa, I suggest a more inclusive re evaluation of Butler as both artist and public figure serving an inclusive 'imagined community'. Chapter One focuses on Butler's plays, both those published and - for the first time - those unpublished, and examines the texts in the context, locally, of a repressive apartheid regime and, internationally, against the background of the Cold War. What emerges is a writer whose views were neither exclusive nor sectarian, and who was an outspoken critic of injustice, wherever this occurred. Butler's hitherto undervalued contribution to the development of serious drama as an art form in South Africa is given prominence. Chapter Two deals with Butler's poetry. For all his intervention in public debate, it is his poetic expression that reveals his most profound insights. His attempts to "take root" in a local habitation are scrutinised, and it is argued that the (ii) poetry has been misunderstood by many of his critics, especially those on the Left. Besides his "compulsion to belong", the study explores the twin search of Butler for an African synthesis through his utilisation of the Apollo-Dionysus paradigm, and his 'eschatological imperative'. While attempting to adapt European forms and sensibilities to African experience his poetry - it is argued - also seeks to heal the divisions of a fragmented South African society. In Chapter Three Butler's cultural projects are examined. It is argued that his cultural narrative is not one of separation but of integration premised (in his own words) on a "common humanity". Several projects are scrutinised in the context of post-1960 Republican South Africa, where National Party policies attempted to impose crushing political and social hegemonies on the English community as well as on all communities of colour. While Butler's immediate aims were to ensure the survival of the English language and English cultural identity, the scope of his cultural projects reveals that his 'imagined community' extended to all South Africans: his vision was not one of elite cultural separation, but of egalitarian integration. Butler's achievements in his many and varied forms of service are considered as having contributed to the formation of a new, democratic SOCiety in South Africa. (iii) DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own original work and that I have not previously, in its entirety or in part, submitted it at any other university for a degree. Signatu re of student:: ........ ........ .. ... ....... .... ...... Date: 15-09-2003 Signature of supervisor: ..... .. .. ........ .. .... ............ Date: 15-09-2003 (iv) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to my supervisor Professor Michael Chapman who, despite his responsibilities as Dean of Human Sciences, has generously afforded me his time. His invaluable suggestions, his encouragement, and his support of my project are greatly appreciated. To Mrs Hatcher and other members of Professor Chapman's support staff, my special thanks for their constant support and assistance. My nephews Alain and And rew have assisted me, from time to time, with the acquisition of important resource material - to them I am greatly indebted. In this connection I also wish to express my gratitude to the library staff of the University of Natal, Durban, and to Mrs Anne Torlesse of the National English Literary Museum in Grahamstown for her willingness to provide me with several unpublished documents of Guy Butler's work. To my mother and other members of my family, who have had to endure my self-imposed exile while I have been engaged in this project, I owe special thanks for their love and support. DEDICATION To the memory of my father and my mother. 1 CONTENTS Introduction 2 Chapter One Plays. Ravens or Doves? 13 Chapter Two Poetry. The Impossible Union? 127 Chapter Three Cultural Projects. Inside and Outside the Whale. 252 References and Notes 301 Bibliography 314 2 INTRODUCTION What is the defining quality of Guy Butler's literary work? When he writes in heroic terms of the 1820 Settlers' struggles on the Eastern Frontier of the Cape Colony is he endorsing a systematic appropriation of land by white settlers, as critics such as Orkin 1 have charged, or is he genuinely attempting to create myth in the South African context to serve a greater cultural project - something akin to W. B. Yeats's Cuchulain, Aengus, and Fergus? Is Butler's stated intention of synthesising Dionysian vigour with Apollonian sensiblity through 'transcendence' really possible, or is this simply an excuse to evade the responsibility of acknowledging and confronting the legacy of colonialism since it mythologises and thus depersonalises experience and historical event? Is a separation of 'politics' and 'culture' in fact possible, as Butler's literary approach would seem to suggest, or are these principles and practices inextricably intertwined? Furthermore, is it an over simplification to think in terms of such neat binaries as most of Butler's critics have done hitherto - Marxists against Liberals, Negritudinists against colonialists - or is a modification of these polarised positions necessary to an understanding of Butler's work? All of these questions are peculiarly apt to Guy Butler's contribution which I see as indissolubly 'art' or 'community service'. I shall take as a starting point a polarised view of Butler as an international Oxford scholar and purveyor of a transcendent Arnoldian tradition, or a Karoo son who is engaged with the problems of his local habitation and has 'taken root' in the African soil. By testing these oppositions against the concepts of 'past significance' and 'present praxis' or genesis and impact, I shall suggest that Butler is neither simply international nor simply local, neither simply transcendent nor simply socially committed. Or 3 perhaps he is both. My point is that no easy dichotomies are able to grasp Butler's complexity in the character of his achievement. This achievement is voluminous and diverse in its output, and spans the period from the Second World War to Butler's death in South Africa on 26 th April 2001. The output coincides, locally, with the years of apartheid and, internationally, the years of the Cold War. It includes plays, poems, short stories, volumes of autobiography, critical essays, articles and commentaries, and a lifetime involvement in cultural and educational projects in the service of 'English in Africa'. This study confines itself to examining Butler's two recognised art forms - his plays and his poetry - in the context of his commitment to habitation: a complicated concept and actuality that is summarised in the trope of the white English-speaking South African taking root in Africa in search of a 'common humanity'. Whereas Butler -like several other South African writers - experienced atomised attacks and defences of his work in the struggle decades of the 1970s and 1980s, I wish to take advantage of the somewhat 'freer' new decade of the 1990s to suggest a more inclusive re-evaluation of Butler as both artist and public figure. My focus on the plays and the poetry at the expense of short stories and autobiographies is not simply dictated by convenience or space. It is my view that Butler, for all his intervention in public debate, reveals his most profound insights in the poetic mode. His critical articles, radio and newspaper commentaries, for example, 'hit notice' not in academic theory but in popular reminders of cultural divide and the need for healing. His tales - collected as Tales from the Old Karoo (1989) - do not successfully manage the transfer of poetic intensity to the genre of the short story. Butler temperamentally is not a Herman Charles Bosman; his stories remain anecdotal without the surprise or suggestion possible to the short- 4 story form. Similarly his autobiographies reveal little conscious commitment to an art genre; rather, they are honest testimony. Like his critical articles, the autobiographies lend insight to his plays and poetry as well as to the difficulties - I return to my earlier point - of how an English-speaking South African finds 'habitation' in Africa. I utilise writings outside the plays and poems, accordingly, as contributing context to understanding Butler's perceptions - his imaginative understandings - of commitment to his being a South African. My argument has to take issue with the Marxist-Liberal divide of the 'interregnum'. While I have the advantage of hindsight, my argument cannot be conclusive. It is a provocation to revisit Butler with revaluations of literary-critical schemas that were not so much derided as ignored in the tense politics of the 1980s. In the case of Butler it is, I think, impossible to understand or appreciate his contribution without at least granting credence to his own predilection not for material determinism, but for a Christian eschatology. Before we discuss this we must remember that, even during the struggle years, the Christian spirit remained strong in South Africa.