The Logic of the Looking Glass: Representations of Time and Temporality in Agaat and High Low In-between

Abstract

SummaryThis article explores representations of time and temporality in two contemporary South African novels in order to examine the salience of the Derridian contretemps in relation to contemporary South African society. As defined by Jacques Derrida, the contretemps is an experience of time and space that is essentially “out of joint” and is often used to represent anomie in a particular context. My close-reading of Imraan Coovadia's High Low In-between (2009) and Marlene van Niekerk's Agaat (2006) thus reveals how the contretemps is employed to not only provide a sense of time gone awry, but also to outline how these narratives explore the contretemps as a potentially ‘new’ temporal modality for contemporary South Africa.