Table Of ContentS
i
The purpose of Narrating the New Nation is to engage with South African Indian writings through n
g
a critical examination of the oeuvre of key writers within a postcolonial theoretical framework. With h
the advent of democracy, South Africa has witnessed new writings which either reflected on apartheid
A
N
with elements of restoration for past atrocities and centered around reflective nostalgia, or looked ahead
D
with optimism and foregrounded new beginnings. The end of the interregnum in 1994 drove people to C
narrate the relationship between past, present and future, which revealed an exciting diversity and rituals h
e
of bourgeois lives or reflected upon disadvantaged and marginalized homes in townships, casbahs and
t
t
ghettos. These innovative narratives attempt to conquer and spatialize different histories, while at the y
same time finding creative ways to assemble shattered fragments of memory. A critical question this
study asks is whether South African literature continues to address themes of journey, exile, migration
and identity within the major concern of place and displacement in apartheid and post-apartheid South
African Indian writing, or whether the new writings foreground critical self-awareness as citizens of
a democratic and neo-colonial nation-state. What analytical questions and concerns do new writings
from the Global South address? This book of critical essays hopes to endorse social and cultural—race,
N
class, gender, sexuality—analysis, problematize them, expand them, and in the end enrich South African
a
literature. In so doing, the authors attempt to encourage a critical, creative and empowering space for a
r
plurality of voices, minds and stories and hope to reveal how literature involves itself in the unfinished r
a
business of the collective in South African history and literature. t
i
n
g
t
Jaspal Kaur Singh is Professor of English Literature at Northern Michigan h
University. Her publications include a monograph, Representation and e
Resistance: South Asian and African Women’s Texts at Home and in the Diaspora, N
and three co-edited books, Negotiating Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary e
Turkey; Indian Writers: Transnationalisms and Diasporas; and Trauma, w
Resistance, Reconstruction in Post-1994 South African Writing.
N
a
Rajendra Chetty is Professor of Language Education at the University of the t
i
o
Western Cape. His publications include a literary biography, At the Edge: The
n
Writings of Ronnie Govender, two books, The Vintage Book of South African Indian
Writing and South African Indian Writings in English, and three co-edited books,
Indias Abroad: The Diaspora Writes Back; Indian Writers: Transnationalisms and
Diasporas; and Trauma, Resistance, Reconstruction in Post-1994 South African Writing.
P
E
T
E
R
L
A
N
G
www.peterlang.com
Front cover design by Anel Joubert
S
i
The purpose of Narrating the New Nation is to engage with South African Indian writings through n
g
a critical examination of the oeuvre of key writers within a postcolonial theoretical framework. With h
the advent of democracy, South Africa has witnessed new writings which either reflected on apartheid
A
N
with elements of restoration for past atrocities and centered around reflective nostalgia, or looked ahead
D
with optimism and foregrounded new beginnings. The end of the interregnum in 1994 drove people to C
narrate the relationship between past, present and future, which revealed an exciting diversity and rituals h
e
of bourgeois lives or reflected upon disadvantaged and marginalized homes in townships, casbahs and
t
t
ghettos. These innovative narratives attempt to conquer and spatialize different histories, while at the y
same time finding creative ways to assemble shattered fragments of memory. A critical question this
study asks is whether South African literature continues to address themes of journey, exile, migration
and identity within the major concern of place and displacement in apartheid and post-apartheid South
African Indian writing, or whether the new writings foreground critical self-awareness as citizens of
a democratic and neo-colonial nation-state. What analytical questions and concerns do new writings
from the Global South address? This book of critical essays hopes to endorse social and cultural—race,
N
class, gender, sexuality—analysis, problematize them, expand them, and in the end enrich South African
a
literature. In so doing, the authors attempt to encourage a critical, creative and empowering space for a
r
plurality of voices, minds and stories and hope to reveal how literature involves itself in the unfinished r
a
business of the collective in South African history and literature. t
i
n
g
t
Jaspal Kaur Singh is Professor of English Literature at Northern Michigan h
University. Her publications include a monograph, Representation and e
Resistance: South Asian and African Women’s Texts at Home and in the Diaspora, N
and three co-edited books, Negotiating Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary e
Turkey; Indian Writers: Transnationalisms and Diasporas; and Trauma, w
Resistance, Reconstruction in Post-1994 South African Writing.
N
a
Rajendra Chetty is Professor of Language Education at the University of the t
i
o
Western Cape. His publications include a literary biography, At the Edge: The
n
Writings of Ronnie Govender, two books, The Vintage Book of South African Indian
Writing and South African Indian Writings in English, and three co-edited books,
Indias Abroad: The Diaspora Writes Back; Indian Writers: Transnationalisms and
Diasporas; and Trauma, Resistance, Reconstruction in Post-1994 South African Writing.
P
E
T
E
R
L
A
N
G
www.peterlang.com
Front cover design by Anel Joubert
S
i
The purpose of Narrating the New Nation is to engage with South African Indian writings through n
g
a critical examination of the oeuvre of key writers within a postcolonial theoretical framework. With h
the advent of democracy, South Africa has witnessed new writings which either reflected on apartheid
A
N
with elements of restoration for past atrocities and centered around reflective nostalgia, or looked ahead
D
with optimism and foregrounded new beginnings. The end of the interregnum in 1994 drove people to C
narrate the relationship between past, present and future, which revealed an exciting diversity and rituals h
e
of bourgeois lives or reflected upon disadvantaged and marginalized homes in townships, casbahs and
t
t
ghettos. These innovative narratives attempt to conquer and spatialize different histories, while at the y
Narrating the New Nation
same time finding creative ways to assemble shattered fragments of memory. A critical question this
study asks is whether South African literature continues to address themes of journey, exile, migration
and identity within the major concern of place and displacement in apartheid and post-apartheid South
African Indian writing, or whether the new writings foreground critical self-awareness as citizens of
a democratic and neo-colonial nation-state. What analytical questions and concerns do new writings
from the Global South address? This book of critical essays hopes to endorse social and cultural—race,
N
class, gender, sexuality—analysis, problematize them, expand them, and in the end enrich South African
a
literature. In so doing, the authors attempt to encourage a critical, creative and empowering space for a
r
plurality of voices, minds and stories and hope to reveal how literature involves itself in the unfinished r
a
business of the collective in South African history and literature. t
i
n
g
t
Jaspal Kaur Singh is Professor of English Literature at Northern Michigan h
University. Her publications include a monograph, Representation and e
Resistance: South Asian and African Women’s Texts at Home and in the Diaspora, N
and three co-edited books, Negotiating Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary e
Turkey; Indian Writers: Transnationalisms and Diasporas; and Trauma, w
Resistance, Reconstruction in Post-1994 South African Writing.
N
a
Rajendra Chetty is Professor of Language Education at the University of the t
i
o
Western Cape. His publications include a literary biography, At the Edge: The
n
Writings of Ronnie Govender, two books, The Vintage Book of South African Indian
Writing and South African Indian Writings in English, and three co-edited books,
Indias Abroad: The Diaspora Writes Back; Indian Writers: Transnationalisms and
Diasporas; and Trauma, Resistance, Reconstruction in Post-1994 South African Writing.
P
E
T
E
R
L
A
N
G
www.peterlang.com
Front cover design by Anel Joubert
This book is part of the Peter Lang Humanities list.
Every volume is peer reviewed and meets
the highest quality standards for content and production.
PETER LANG
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Jaspal Kaur Singh and Rajendra Chetty
Narrating the New Nation
South African Indian Writing
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Brussels Vienna Oxford Warsaw
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Singh, Jaspal Kaur, author. | Chetty, Rajendra, author.
Title: Narrating the new nation: South African Indian writing /
Jaspal Kaur Singh, Rajendra Chetty.
Description: New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2018.
Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016015048 | ISBN 978-1-4331-3012-0 (hardcover: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4331-5564-2 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-5565-9 (epub)
ISBN 978-1-4331-5566-6 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: South African literature (English)—East Indian authors—
History and criticism. | South African literature (English)—20th century—
History and criticism. | South African literature (English)—21st century—
History and criticism. | East Indian diaspora in literature. | Race in literature.
Classification: LCC PR9358.2.I54 S56 2018 | DDC 820.98914110968—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016015048
DOI 10.3726/b13415
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.
© 2018 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York
29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006
www.peterlang.com
All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.
My sons Kalin Pascual and Christian Aditya
and my granddaughter Zaara.
My son Gautam Mohan Singh, my daughter Gitanjali Kaur Singh,
my granddaughter Karina Singh Cho and my late sister, Bina Singh.
Contents Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Resilience in Diaspora Writings of the Indian Community in
South Africa 1
Rajendra Chetty and Jaspal Kaur Singh
Chapter One: Ethical versus Ethnic Pre- eminence: The Centrality of
South African Indian Writing 9
Rajendra Chetty
Chapter Two: Excavating Cultural Memories: Social Justice and Social
Change in Fatima Meer and Sita Gandhi’s Texts 25
Jaspal Kaur Singh
Chapter Three: Black Lives Matter: The Significance of Fatima Meer’s
Prison Diary 39
Rajendra Chetty
Chapter Four: Diaspora and Imperialism: An Analysis of Ronnie
Govender’s The Lahnee’s Pleasure 53
Rajendra Chetty
viii | narrating the new nation: south african indian writing
Chapter Five: Apartheid and Postapartheid Literary Imagination in
Ahmed Essop’s Fiction 65
Jaspal Kaur Singh
Chapter Six: The Global North and South: Comparative Postcolonial
Poetics in Diasporic South Asian Women’s Texts 77
Jaspal Kaur Singh
Chapter Seven: Representing Durban in South African Indian Writing 105
Rajendra Chetty
Chapter Eight: From the Individual to the Collective: Acts of Resistance
and Social Transformation in Pregs Govender’s Love and Courage:
A Story of Insubordination 117
Jaspal Kaur Singh
Chapter Nine: Queering South Asian Indian Diaspora: Theories and
Intersectionalities 129
Jaspal Kaur Singh
