Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to show how space is manipulated in order to create order and control over people in a totalitarian regime. Michael, the protagonist of the novel, problematises hegemonic and totalising perception of space by occupying a position that rejects either/or logic of modern thought. Not only does Michael pose a threat to the arrogation of space by apartheid but also problematises the appropriation and control of identity and meaning which in totalitarian regimes are closely connected to the control of social spaces. Michael, for the most part, remains impervious to spatial and semantic disambiguation by resorting to the politics of ambivalence and in-betweenness. Such positionality makes the novel a platform for the demonstration of postmodern identity politics which hinges on a resistance to epistemological disambiguation and dualistic structuring. The framework used here consists of applying the theories of thinkers whose ideas share a penchant for disrupting the binary divisions that have underlain our socio-political understanding in the modern era. The novel will be analysed in light of these ideas to establish its compatibility with such a kind of reading. Keywords: in-betweenness; thirdspace; camp-mentality; state of exception; overwriting DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2016-2201-03
Highlights
Life and Times of Michael K ( LTMK) embraces issues that are closely connected to the idea of securing a material and metaphorical in-between position
Written in a recognisably dystopian style with an apocalyptic view, the novel depicts a South Africa afflicted with civil war, where the eponymous Michael K becomes a material and metaphorical entity that refuses to be semantically and spatially pinned down
Michael’s penchant for spaces and identities outside the established binaries of “modern intellect” (Bauman 1998, p. 9) is problematic because it introduces a third alternative into the dichotomised perception of the world
Summary
Life and Times of Michael K ( LTMK) embraces issues that are closely connected to the idea of securing a material and metaphorical in-between position. Such enclosed spaces are discursive fields where signification is generated by welding the signified and the signifier together Contrary to this conception, Bhabha (1994) and Soja/Hooper (1993) posit the fluidity and instability of cultural products and identities. Their ideas point to the continuous making and remaking of identities within the constricting borders of nation-states. Gilroy (2000) argues that modern nation-states are sometimes analogous to camps for the reason that they are constituted on principles of strict homogeneity in terms of race, ethnicity or the construction of an illusory cultural identity (p.87). In the following two sections, a critical reading of the novel will be presented based on the introductory discussion above
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