Time and Alterity in South African Writing

Reevaluating neoliberalism's temporal regimes of growth and decline, the book invites us to think about temporality experimentally. Focusing on works by Brink, Coetzee and Mda, it studies South African revisioning of time and alterity. It also examines what living in a post-revolutionary society entails for one's perception of time and otherness.

The Covid-19 pandemic has thrust us all into a warped, disjointed 'coronatime,' which has both uncontrollably accelerated, and interminably decelerated, or got frozen. Just like the pandemic, this book provides a chance to reevaluate neoliberalism's temporal regimes of growth, decline, deceleration and acceleration. South Africa and its contemporary literature are a perfect background against which to think about temporality experimentally. Focusing on three South African authors, André Brink, J.M. Coetzee and Zakes Mda, the book examines contemporary South African revisioning of time and alterity. Through some of the previously unexplored texts, it studies what living in a post-conflict, post-revolutionary and highly traumatized society entails for one's perception of time and otherness.

Autorentext

Paulina Grzeda is Assistant Professor at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, Poland. She researches alternative perceptions of time in postcolonial cultures (with a special focus on Africa), historiography, cultural perceptions of otherness, representations of trauma in film and literature, as well as links between literature and psychotherapy. She is also a certified coach and an inquisitive traveller.

Klappentext

The Covid-19 pandemic has thrust us all into a warped, disjointed coronatime, which has both uncontrollably accelerated, and interminably decelerated, or got frozen. Just like the pandemic, this book provides a chance to reevaluate neoliberalism s temporal regimes of growth, decline, deceleration and acceleration. South Africa and its contemporary literature are a perfect background against which to think about temporality experimentally. Focusing on three South African authors, André Brink, J.M. Coetzee and Zakes Mda, the book examines contemporary South African revisioning of time and alterity. Through some of the previously unexplored texts, it studies what living in a post-conflict, post-revolutionary and highly traumatized society entails for one s perception of time and otherness.

Inhalt

The Persistence of History and South African Literature

Alterity, Time and De-temporalization of Difference

Magical Realism and Temporalities of Post-apartheid

Towards the Ethics of Alter(nat)ing Temporalities of Post-apartheid:

Alterity and Time in Fiction by Zakes Mda and J.M. Coetzee

Trauma, Alterity and Time in South African Autobiographical Writing

Trilogy of Fictionalized Memoirs by J.M. Coetzee

Memoirs by André Brink and Zakes Mda