The Uses of F(r)iction: The Heart of Redness, The Whale Caller and Their Critique of Sustainable Development and Becoming-Animal

Abstract

The relation between time and narrative has been studied more thoroughly than any narrative engagement with place, not least of all by Paul Ricceur, who describes the narration of time via fiction as a transcultural form of (1983: 52). The connection between spatial and temporal foci, however, has been of less concern. In this chapter, I take Bakhtin's concept of the chronotope as the starting point for a discussion of spatiotemporal narrative patterns in the context of EnvironMentality. By reading selected passages from Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness1 and by discussing notions of cultural ecology and double-coding in this context, I will show how the novel's chronotope interacts with the environmentalist positions presented in the text.The Heart of Redness is concerned with the influence of Westerneducated elites on wilderness, as well as on non-Western cultures, and it features a vision of sustainable development. This counterdiscursive vision can be read in connection with cultural-ecological notions but, ultimately, the novel's aesthetic force is not tied to these ideas. On the contrary, the textual form - especially the novel's chronotope - contradicts the visions allegedly supported by the text. Thus, I will argue, the text creates a significant tension, and I will complement my argument for a form-oriented ecocritical approach by analysing the friction that chronotope and environmental vision produce.Just like The Hungry Tide, the novels of Zakes Mda, especially The Heart of Redness and The Whale Caller, have become seminal works in postcolonial-ecocritical analyses (see Goodman 2008; Sewlall 2008; Woodward 2005). The Heart of Redness in particular can be discussed in the context of Zapf s cultural-ecological model because its story consists of several layers that at first sight seem to be easily assignable to the different cultural-ecological functions Zapf describes. One level presents the story of Camagu, visitor to the rural village Qolorha-by-Sea, who is tom between two women: Xoliswa is oriented towards a Western lifestyle and believes in the necessity of development; and Qukezwa, who, on the other hand, is described as being bound to the traditional ways of the amaXhosa. The narrative is moreover pervaded by the conflicts between the ?Believers' and the ?Unbelievers', two groups who also propagate traditionalism and development, respectively, and whose quarrels inform this second level. Both groups inhabit the village Qolorha-by-Sea, and their conflicts over social and environmental policy affect the ways of local government, belief, and cultural practice in general. The triadic relationship between Camagu, Xoliswa and Qukezwa and the social conflicts between Believers and Unbelievers are connected to a third narrative strand concerned with the amaXhosa's colonial past, and with the historical event known as the ?Xhosa Cattle-Killing' of 1857 (for a detailed account of these events, see Peires 1989).2 This event, during which the amaXhosa sacrificed almost all of their cattle due to the prophecy of a girl named Nonqkawuse, is represented as a struggle between colonial and missionary influences from the British Empire and traditional Xhosa belief systems, and the links to the two storylines set in contemporary times are remarkable in several ways. Most important is the connection between the arrival of Camagu and the colonial invasion of the nineteenth century, and in what follows, I will try to account for this relation.When Camagu appears in Qolorha-By-Sea, it seems that he is able to negotiate the conflicts that inform the plot. As he is immersed in the local culture, and thus his own cultural past, he begins to understand the problems of the villagers and suggests a compromise that seems to solve the numerous conflicts: instead of a decision for or against a ?Western' form of progress, he proposes a model of green and sustainable eco-tourism that permits the villagers to retain certain traditional customs. …