States of emergency and the apartheid legal order in South African fiction
States of emergency and the apartheid legal order in South African fiction
This essay considers how narratives of emergency in apartheid South Africa are figured in Richard Rive's Emergency (1964) and Emergency Continued (1990). Beginning with a discussion of the role of emergency legislation in apartheid South Africa, the essay proceeds to consider how the rhetoric and force of the apartheid legal order is both foregrounded and contested in Rive's fiction. The essay considers in particular the ways in which Rive's fiction explores the constraints placed on writing during a state of emergency, and the limitations of protest writing as a literary paradigm. It concludes with a brief discussion of Zoë Wicomb's David's Story (2001), and asks how literary narratives can guard against the continuation of state violence in the context of the new South Africa.
south africa, state of emergency, apartheid, biopolitics, richard rive, zoë wicomb
491-503
Morton, Stephen
3200c49e-fcfa-4088-9168-1d6998266ec1
2010
Morton, Stephen
3200c49e-fcfa-4088-9168-1d6998266ec1
Morton, Stephen
(2010)
States of emergency and the apartheid legal order in South African fiction.
Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 46 (5), .
(doi:10.1080/17449855.2010.517054).
Abstract
This essay considers how narratives of emergency in apartheid South Africa are figured in Richard Rive's Emergency (1964) and Emergency Continued (1990). Beginning with a discussion of the role of emergency legislation in apartheid South Africa, the essay proceeds to consider how the rhetoric and force of the apartheid legal order is both foregrounded and contested in Rive's fiction. The essay considers in particular the ways in which Rive's fiction explores the constraints placed on writing during a state of emergency, and the limitations of protest writing as a literary paradigm. It concludes with a brief discussion of Zoë Wicomb's David's Story (2001), and asks how literary narratives can guard against the continuation of state violence in the context of the new South Africa.
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Published date: 2010
Keywords:
south africa, state of emergency, apartheid, biopolitics, richard rive, zoë wicomb
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 184675
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/184675
ISSN: 1744-9855
PURE UUID: 5fec2231-275e-4ed0-b466-c14d31588126
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Date deposited: 06 May 2011 10:22
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 03:09
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