How Do I Write in This Strange Place?: The Treatment of Shame and Whiteliness in Contemporary White South African Post- Apartheid Literature

Abstract

SummaryPost-apartheid literature is a genre that, in its aesthetic and political complexity, still largely eludes neat definition, but the discussions around its development are various. Many have suggested that the change in literary tradition from the apartheid era has not been very substantial at all. At the 2015 Franschoek Literary Festival, Thando Mqgolozana correctly identified that South Africa’s literary sphere, from published writing to literary festivals, was not demographically representative, and still revolved around serving the interests of white South Africans. Literature is not the only part of post-apartheid South African society that ethically demands the decentring of historical whiteness, and white South Africans are grappling with this moral necessity in various ways. Because many white South Africans feel ashamed of the nation’s racial inequalities, Samantha Vice argues, they are critically assessing their own ways of living and how they are part of the problem. This attitude is evident in much contemporary white South African literature. Here I aim to critically compare two post- apartheid novels by white South African authors: Ken Barris’s What Kind of Child (2006) and Justin Cartwright’s White Lightning (2002). I will interrogate their differing approaches to decentring whites, whiteness and whiteliness, noting not only where they are useful, but also – and more specifically – how both these approaches inevitably fall back into an ingrained white centrality. This article, being a contribution to whiteness studies, also somewhat ironically re-centres whiteness despite its own criticisms. It accordingly aims to both practice and advocate a careful self-reflexivity that may be useful for white South African writing going forward. These analyses will be grounded within existential discussions regarding whiteness and whiteliness, and national post-apartheid rebuilding and development.