The “I” as Implicated Subject: Performative Confession in Rian Malan’s My Traitor’s Heart

Confessional forms of autobiographical writing have predominated in post-apartheid South African literary studies. This paper discusses Rian Malan’s My Traitor’s Heart, published in 1990 during drastic social and political changes in South Africa’s transition to democracy. It was one of the first an...

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Vydáno v:Humanities (Basel) Ročník 13; číslo 4; s. 90
Hlavní autor: Moon, Jihie
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:angličtina
Vydáno: Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2024
Témata:
Apartheid
Autobiographies
confessional narrative
Confessions
Culture
Identity formation
Identity politics
My Traitor’s Heart
Narratives
performativity
politics of identity
Post-apartheid era
Postcolonialism
Reconciliation
Rian Malan
South African literature
Writing
New York
South Africa
United Kingdom
ISSN:2076-0787, 2076-0787
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Shrnutí:Confessional forms of autobiographical writing have predominated in post-apartheid South African literary studies. This paper discusses Rian Malan’s My Traitor’s Heart, published in 1990 during drastic social and political changes in South Africa’s transition to democracy. It was one of the first and most prominent examples of this genre. Focusing on Malan’s perspective as a white Afrikaner and an “implicated subject”, this study explored how his confessional account grappled with the existential dilemma of post-apartheid Afrikaner identity. Malan simultaneously affirmed his Afrikaner identity to confront his implication in apartheid and sought to establish a legitimate place for this identity within the new multicultural society. Through a close reading of Malan’s strategic performance, this paper argues that his work offers a means of reimagining the collective self in a new community and understanding historical injustices from a multidimensional perspective. Ultimately, My Traitor’s Heart contributes to the post-apartheid project of envisioning a more inclusive psychological and topographical construction of individual and collective identity, with the implicated subject as its centre.
Bibliografie:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:2076-0787
2076-0787
DOI:10.3390/h13040090