The representation of pain and suffering in narrative form is an ongoing ethical issue in contemporary South African literature. Can violence be represented without sensationalistic effects, or, alternatively, without effects that tend to be conservative because they place the reader in a position of superiority over the victim or the perpetrator? Jolly looks at three primary South African authors - Andre Brink, Breyten Breytenbach, and J. M. Coetzee - to consider violence in the context of apartheid and colonialism and their inherent patriarchies. Jolly also discusses the violence attendant upon the act of narration in the broader context of critiques of Kafka, Freud, Hegel, the postcolonial critics Jan Mohamed and Bhabha, and feminists such as Susan Suleiman.

Book Information
ISBN 9780821411315
Author Rosemary Jane Jolly
Format Paperback
Page Count 196
Imprint Ohio University Press
Publisher Ohio University Press