Praxis And/As Critique

Praxis and/as critique In the translations of the oeuvre of Ingrid Winterbach by Chantelle Gray van Heerden Dissertation presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Prof Tina Steiner Co-supervisor: Dr Daniel Roux December 2014 Stellenbosch University http://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. SIGNATURE: DATE: (Chantelle Gray van Heerden) 7 August 2014 Copyright © 2014 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved ii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za ABSTRACT In this dissertation I investigate how aesthetics, politics and ethics intersect as material flows in translation, and how these actualise in the oeuvre of Lettie Viljoen/Ingrid Winterbach. With the emphasis on praxis, I explore these three threads through the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in particular, though not exclusively. With reference to Deleuze and Guattari’s project on ‘minor literature’, I demonstrate that Viljoen/Winterbach’s oeuvre contains a high degree of deterritorialisation through methods such as thematic refrains, stylistic devices and her use of Engfrikaans. In translation these methods are investigated in terms of the ethico-aesthetic framework developed by Guattari, the role of capitalism in its relation to translation and the publishing industry (i.e. the political), and how translation and/as praxis may begin to develop a nomadic ethics. Aesthetics, from a Deleuzo-Guattarian perspective is shown to be not about the value produced by capitalism, but rather about that which deterritorialises as a singularity. Such a singularity in literature may be said to actualise as a minor literature or, more accurately, a becoming-minor. With regards to politics in translation/translation in politics, I argue that the question of translation should no longer be What does this word/text mean? but rather What is the word/text/translation doing? When the emphasis moves from semantics to praxis I argue that translation, like other forms of literature, has the potential to affect social transformation. I put forth as part of my argument that this is possible through deterritorialising practices like écriture féminine and Viljoen/Winterbach’s use of Engfrikaans and the trickster figure, as such methods allow for bifurcations away from State territorialisations. And finally, I examine how translators might begin to develop a praxis informed by a nomadic ethics which is not reliant on a normative morality, but rather constitutes an orientation founded on heterogeneity and the repudiation of universality. iii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za OPSOMMING In hierdie proefskrif word daar ondersoek hoe estetika, politiek and etiek as reële elemente saamvloei in vertaling, en hoe dit aktualiseer in the oeuvre van Lettie Viljoen/Ingrid Winterbach. Met die klem op praxis ondersoek ek dié drie elemente in besonder in terme van die filosofie van Gilles Deleuze en Félix Guattari, alhoewel nie eksklusief nie. Met verwysing na Deleuze end Guattari se projek aangaande ’n ‘klein (mindere) literatuur’, demonstreer ek dat Viljoen/Winterbach se oeuvre ’n hoë graad van deterritorialisasie weerspieël wat uit haar gebruik van metodes soos tematiese refreine, stilistiese instrumente en die gebruik van Engfrikaans voortspruit. In vertaling word hierdie metodes ondersoek in terme van die eties-estetiese raamwerk wat deur Guattari ontwikkel is asook die politieke rol van kapitalisme in verhouding tot vertaling en die publikasiebedryf, sowel as hoe vertaling as praxis daartoe mag bydra om ’n nomadiese etiek te ontwikkel. Vanuit ’n Deleuzo-Guattariaanse perspektief word daar aangetoon dat estetika nie handel oor die waarde wat kapitalisme voortbring nie, maar eerder oor die enkele-uniekheid (“singularity”) wat deterritorialisering meebring. Dit kan gestel word dat in literatuur sodanige enkele-uniekheid as mindere (“minor”) literatuur gesien kan word of, om meer akkuraat te wees, die voortbring daarvan kan aktualiseer. Betreffende politiek in vertaling/vertaling in politiek word daar aangevoer dat die vraagstuk van vertaling voortaan nie moet wees Wat beteken hierdie woord of teks? nie, maar eerder Wat vermag ’n woord of teks in die vertaling? Daar word verder aangevoer dat wanneer die klem vanaf semantiek na praxis verskuif vertaling, soos ander vorme van literatuur, die potensiaal inhou om sosiale transformasie te beïnvloed. As deel van die onderliggende argument word daar gepostuleer dat die voorgenoemde inderdaad moontlik is deur deterritorialiserende paraktyke soos écriture féminine en Viljoen/Winterbach se gebruik van Engfrikaans asmede die triekster-figuur omdat sulke metodes die geleentheid skep vir splitsing (“bifurcation”) weg van Staatsterritorialisering af. Ten slotte word ondersoek ingestel na hoe vertalers ’n praxis sou kon ontwikkel wat deur ’n nomadiese etiek en nie’n normatiewe moraliteit gelei word nie, maar wat eerder op ’n orientasie van heterogeniteit en die verwerping van essensie gebaseer is. iv Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We will never find the sense of something (of a human, a biological or even a physical phenomenon) if we do not know the force which appropriates the thing, which exploits it, which takes possession of it or is expressed in it. ~Deleuze 1983: 3 I would like to thank the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University for providing funds to pursue my doctoral studies full-time. I would also like to thank the English Department for their continued support, but especially I want to thank my supervisors, Prof Tina Steiner and Dr Daniel Roux, not only for ‘rescuing’ me at times, but for allowing me to take my own lines of flight. For that I am truly grateful; it is one thing to have supervisors and quite another to have mentors. They were certainly the latter. To Ingrid Winterbach whose words “are no longer anything more than intensities” (Deleuze & Guattari 1987: 164): a very big thank you for assisting me so graciously throughout this project. Lastly, I would like to thank my partner, Aragorn Eloff, for the many coffees he made, for his unfailing care and for sharing me with my work. v Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za CONTENTS Cover page i Declaration ii Abstract iii Opsomming iv Acknowledgements v Contents vi Introduction: The book is not an image of the world 1 I went looking for a book… 2 I) Of translation and Lettie Viljoen/Ingrid Winterbach’s oeuvre 3 II) Ingrid Winterbach: the person and the author 4 III) The Viljoen/Winterbach oeuvre in the context of Translation Studies 9 IV) Deleuze and Guattari: style, stuttering and minor literature 13 Chapter 1: Conceptual impasse of the deluded doos 17 1.1 Introduction: a map, not a tracing 18 1.2 Language that offers resistance: language that stutters and disrupts 24 1.2.1 The centre and the margin: real, represented and representational 26 1.2.1.1 The minor in the minor and the minor in the major 28 1.2.1.2 Deterritorialisation (disruption, disturbance, disorder) in Winterbach’s oeuvre 30 i) Niggie/To hell with Cronjé 31 ii) Die boek van toeval en toeverlaat/The book of happenstance 35 iii) Die benederyk/The road of excess and Die aanspraak van lewende wesens 39 iv) Earlier works: a brief overview 44 1.2.2 Stuttering language: style as protest and exploration 45 1.2.3 The taboo and the performativity of language 47 1.2.4 The archivist (language lost, language regained) 51 1.2.5 Translating Die boek van toeval en toeverlaat 59 1.2.5.1 Sense and affect 60 i) Sense 61 ii) Affect 63 1.3 Summary 63 vi Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Chapter 2: Ethico-aesthetics and the machinic repetition of literature in translation 65 2.1 Introduction: machinic invention and expression 66 2.2 One socius, many machines: is there an exit strategy? 68 2.2.1 Art as abstract machine: becoming non-human 73 2.3 What is art? 75 2.4 Literature as art 80 2.4.1 Ingrid Winterbach’s oeuvre: singularity or reproduction? 83 2.5 Retaining aesthetic potential in translation: the ‘machinic repetition’ of art 92 2.5.1 The elusive moth (2005) 93 2.5.2 To hell with Cronjé (2007) 95 2.5.3 The book of happenstance (2008) 97 2.5.4 The road of excess (2014) 101 2.6 Summary 105 Chapter 3: To flee, but in fleeing to seek a weapon 107 3.1 Introduction: translation in politics/politics in translation 108 3.2 The political vs. politics: what it literature/translation doing? 111 3.2.1 Politics in Viljoen/Winterbach’s oeuvre 113 3.2.1.1 Winterbach’s use of the trickster figure/Winterbach as trickster figure 116 3.2.2 Écriture féminine 119 3.2.2.1 Examples of écriture féminine in Ingrid Winterbach’s novels 120 3.3 Capitalism and the capitalist axiomatic 122 3.4 Capitalist realism 127 3.5. The State apparatus and binary overcoding 129 3.5.1 Sate assemblages in literary practices 131 3.5.2. The agency of assemblages 135 3.6 Summary 136 Chapter 4: Ethical cleansing: the dislocation of meaning in history 137 4.1 Introduction: towards a nomadic ethics in translation praxis 138 4.2 Cultural identity and the minoritising of

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