Identity, gender, and land in Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat

Abstract

The relationships between land and identity are important themes in the plaasroman (farm novel), a subgenre to which Marlene van Niekerk writes back in her novel Agaat (2004). In this article, I explore identity, land and gender in Agaat. I offer a discussion of the ways in which identity and land are inextricably linked in the normative plaasroman, and within this vein, consider the case of Agaat.While I focus on the traditional relationship between patriarchy and the farm, I also refer to the notion of the volksmoeder (literally mother of the nation or people) – a role that Milla attempts to break free from.Through a close reading of the text, I then consider how the relationship with the land – and specifically farming land – is used as a textual device to problematize the gender relations on the fictional farm Grootmoedersdrift. In particular, I consider how the characters Milla and Jak’s different approaches to farming on Grootmoedersdrift, both multifaceted and threaded through the entire novel, serve as the basic axis around which their relationship revolves. As a kind of self-aware plaasroman that weaves problematized notions of gender identity through the narrative,Van Niekerk’s novel offers a nuanced representation of how gendered power is enacted and subverted in the attachment to and cultivation of farming land and the body.