Apartheid and Beyond: South African Writers and the Politics of Place by Rita Barnard

Abstract

1132 Reviews function of thework itself,and the artist's involvement in creating it. In a discussion of the importance of books in still-life scenes, she argues that still-lifeworks 'induce creative integration ofproximity and distance', commenting that '[b]ooks bring this distance near, turn theworld into a graspable object but without the pretense of domination. Indeed it is themix of the real or physical with themake-believe or symbolic space, materiality and metaphor, that creates the conduit feeling I find so compelling in these works' (p. 19). Here, surely, itwould be worth decelerating to unpack the difficult and fascinating questions raised. It isunclear whether Costello is arguing that the act of portraying a book in an artwork evokes a relationship between history and thepersonal because a book read inprivate may evoke a turbu lenthistorical world beyond, orwhether she isdetecting something specific to still life in the artwork's capacity toquestion the relationship between fictionand reality. This interesting book raises many questions about the relationship of art to so ciety and the role of the artist and interpreter.Greater length and a willingness to pause and untangle the ramifications of the arguments here might have produced a more satisfying,more conclusive study. Bristol Rose White Apartheid and Beyond: South African Writers and thePolitics of Place. By Rita Barnard. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2007. vii+218 pp. ?32.99. ISBN 987-0-19-511286-3. Rita Barnard's Apartheid and Beyond deals with apartheid's dependence on a bi ased and static definition of place as a basis for segregation in South Africa and the reflection and deconstruction of it in the country's literature, notably by J. M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Athol Fugard, Miriam Tlali, and Zakes Mda. Itanalyses the struggle authors undertake while dealing with their country's intensely com plex geographical history and its influence on the present-day political and social situation. Barnard stresses thepotential and necessity of redefining space and place in contemporary South African literature. The book engages with the problems surrounding the terminology of postcolo nial theory,while italso critiques the concept of 'postcolonial' literature in a South African context because of its unique historical situation. The interdisciplinary approach and the variety of authorial points of view included benefit the overall methodology. Barnard uses American and European aswell asAfrican philosophers and literary theorists, such as Bakhtin, Jameson,Deleuze, Guattari, Mphahlele, and Chaudhuri, and she has a particular proclivity for Foucault. In her lucid and de tailed introduction she explains the ideological and political meanings of place and spatial relations. These theories of space are pertinent in the analysis ofpostcolonial literature,while they also form the solid principles on which imperialism isbased. What is particularly interesting is the distinction Barnard makes between 'the place represented in the text' and 'theplace of the text'within South African liter ary history.Without explicitlymentioning it,she also comes to envisage 'theplace as text' and 'the text as place' during her analyses. Barnard includes a personal MLR, 104.4, 2009 ii33 paragraph inwhich she clarifies her own position, motivations, and subjectivity. This incorporation of her own personal myth of origins' is especially admirable as itnot only justifies choices and points of view but also places her in the spatial context inwhich she iswriting. A parallel with Gordimer's idea is thus formed: 'the act of reading?not tomention the subjectivity of the reader?is grounded in domestic space' (p. 42), which has direct reference to her own position. Barnard finds itopportune to assert her own history as a South African student in theCape, her current location as a South African living and working in theUSA, and her 'writing across a rift' (p. 14) as that influences her analyses. The six chapters are thematically distributed and deal with a number of 'mas terpieces' by internationally established and new authors who produce English language novels or plays. The Coetzee chapter discusses his literaryobsession with the South African pastoral. Barnard places this complex attitudewithin the trope of 'dream topographies'. The second and third chapters deal with Gordimer's idea that people are inherently linked to and formed by places. Chapter 2 sees the narrator's political awakening inGordimer's Bildungsromans, and...