On South African violence through Giorgio Agamben’s biopolitical framework: A comparative study of J.M. Coetzee’s "Disgrace" and Z. Mda’s "Ways of Dying"

dc.contributor.authorBartnik, Ryszard
dc.date.accessioned2017-08-29T08:29:35Z
dc.date.available2017-08-29T08:29:35Z
dc.date.issued2014
dc.description.abstractIn this article I argue that the developments of countries going through transition from authoritarian to democratic rule are always stamped by numerous references to formerly sanctioned and fully operational institutionalized violence. A perfect exemplification of this phenomenon is [post-] apartheid South Africa and its writing. In the context of the above, both the social and the literary realm of the 1990s might be perceived as resonant with Giorgio Agamben’s ‘concentrationary’, deeply divisive imaginary. Escaping from, and concurrently remembering, past fears, anxieties, yet seeking hope and consolation, the innocent but also the formerly outlawed and victimized along [interestingly enough] with [ex]perpetrators exemplify, as discussed in J. M. Coetzee’s and Z. Mda’s novels, the necessity of an exposure of the mechanism of South African ‘biopoliticization’ of life. Their stories prove how difficult the uprooting of the mentality of segregation, hatred and the policy of bracketing the other’s life as insubstantial, thus vulnerable to instrumental violence, in [post-] apartheid society was. In view of the above what is to be highlighted here is the authorial perception of various attempts at disavowing past and present violence as detrimental to South African habitat. In the end, coming to terms with the past, with the belligerent nature of local mental maps, must inevitably lead to the acknowledgement of guilt and traumatic suffering. Individual and collective amnesia conditioned by deeply-entrenched personal culpability or personal anguish is then construed as damaging, and as such is subject do deconstructive analysis.pl_PL
dc.identifier.citationStudia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 49.4 (2014), pp. 21-36pl_PL
dc.identifier.issn0081-6272
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10593/19224
dc.language.isoengpl_PL
dc.publisherAdam Mickiewicz Universitypl_PL
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesspl_PL
dc.subjectbare lifepl_PL
dc.subject[post-] apartheid novelpl_PL
dc.subjectviolencepl_PL
dc.subjectGiorgio Agambenpl_PL
dc.subjectthe otherpl_PL
dc.titleOn South African violence through Giorgio Agamben’s biopolitical framework: A comparative study of J.M. Coetzee’s "Disgrace" and Z. Mda’s "Ways of Dying"pl_PL
dc.typeArtykułpl_PL

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
[Studia Anglica Posnaniensia] On South African Violence Through Giorgio Agambens Biopolitical Framework A Comparative Study Of J.M. Coetzees Disgrace And Z. Mdas Ways Of Dying.pdf
Size:
173.03 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.47 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Biblioteka Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego