Abstract
The collective voice in the novel, “The Madonna of Excelsior” (2002), reveals that crossing of borders is a process characterised by cultural contact that reduces cultural polarisation and makes social transformation possible. This article examines the transformative potential of the novel. The first part of the novel indicates that the transformation of polarised South African society is inevitable, desirable and possible in order to normalise life. This transformation does, however, involve transgression and contestation of the old order. To present the possibility of transformation, the collective voice in the novel makes the Immorality Act the object of its satire, revealing the failure of apartheid nationalism and its master narrative. The alternative offered in the second part of the novel is a transforming macrocosm – a South African society that grapples with crossing apartheid’s borders.
Highlights
This essay explores the narrative voice in The Madonna of Excelsior (2002), focusing on what the collective voice of the narrator says about the crossing of essentialist boundaries and identities to foster transformation
Narrative voice can be defined as the voice of “the narrator” or “the speaker of a text” (Rimmon-Kenan, 1983:87)
For the purpose of this essay, the “collective voice” of the narrator we hear in the novel can be identified as the narrative voice that speaks for a group of individuals, and a voice that belongs to all those who were affected by the Immorality Act and other apartheid laws that enforced racial division
Summary
This essay explores the narrative voice in The Madonna of Excelsior (2002), focusing on what the collective voice of the narrator says about the crossing of essentialist boundaries and identities to foster transformation. Narrative voice can be defined as the voice of “the narrator” or “the speaker of a text” (Rimmon-Kenan, 1983:87). Cobley (2001:104) calls it “the voice of the poet or narrator”. According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1999), voice is “an opinion or attitude, or means or agency by which it is expressed”. For the purpose of this essay, the “collective voice” of the narrator we hear in the novel can be identified as the narrative voice that speaks for a group of individuals, and a voice that belongs to all those who were affected by the Immorality Act and other apartheid laws that enforced racial division
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