Haunted house, haunted nation
Triomf and the South African postcolonial gothic
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20156167 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jack Shear (Binghamton University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 70-95 |
| Publication date | 2006-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Literary Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0256-4718 • E-ISSN: 1753-5387 |
| Publisher | Unisa Press (PUBLISHER • ZA) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02564710608530391 |
| OpenAlex | W1972012360 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 10 |
By drawing upon contemporary loci of fear and cultural anxiety, Gothic literature continually reinvents itself across international borders. This article places Marlene van Niekerk's Triomf (2004) within the context of the Gothic novel as a uniquely South African development of the postcolonial Gothic mode. In Triomf, Van Niekerk reworks the conventions common to Gothic fiction to create a literature of terror that captures the Zeitgeist of Afrikaner anxieties ‐ the novel functions as a critique of white South Africa's civil religion of cultural dominion. Specifically, Van Niekerk deploys a hauntology of the Voortrekker tradition that questions the congruence of South Africa's mythologised past and the nation's projected postcolonial claims for the present and future; as Sophiatown's buried past rises to the surface, the Benade family find themselves haunted by the apartheid policies that constructed their suburban home ‐ the haunted house becomes the haunted nation. To illustrate the spectral purpose at work in Triomf, I reference Jacques Derrida's Specters of Marx as a framework from which to view the ideological haunting that Van Niekerk uses in her narrative. As the free elections of 1994 draw near in the novel, haunting gives way to the possibilities of a Gothic apocalypse that threatens not only the Benades, but also the self‐sustaining colonial ideology that enables Afrikaner cultural and political superiority
Art · Colonialism · Ideology · Literature · Narrative · Politics · Sociology · Comics and Graphic Narratives · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Law · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies
The Politics of Living Death in Nuruddin Farah's Sweet and Sour Milk
White Bread and Whitewashing
The Postcolonial Gothic
Gender Politics and the Gothic in Karel Schoeman's This Life
Sisters and spirits
Martha(martyr)dom
My Skin, a Parchment of Tales”
The repugnant appeal of the abject
Finding the 'way back
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2024 (17) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |