Mandela's Meanings: A Translated and Adapted Life

This paper reflects on the seeming ubiquity of representations of Nelson Mandela, and contrasts this with the years of silence and facelessness that have entered the mythological sphere - the 18 years he spent on Robben Island. The period when Mandela (through text or image) circulated the least has now in fact become the centrepiece of the narrative of his life. In this paper, I reconstitute some of the literary and photographic fragments of that era, one for which the biographical record is strikingly consistent ad repetitive. One anecdote that has been retold by every biographer is that of Mandela performing the role of King Creon in a production of Antigone. Interpreters typically cast this small incident in mythical and allegorical terms. Through reconstituting the scattered references to the performance, I show that these interpretations typically exaggerate and misread the anecdote. Thus the Antigone performance provides us instead, I argue, with an instance of a retrospective reading that exceeds the event

Django Unchained: A Black-Centred Superhero and Unchained Audiences

In Ishmael Reed’s Wall Street Journal response piece “Black Audiences, White Stars and Django Unchained” he offers a deliberately discomforting description of his encounter with Tarantino’s Django Unchained: “I saw the film in Berkeley where the audience was about 95% white. They really had a good time.” Reed’s alienated and critical response to the film is informed by his understanding of the central question of “who should tell the black story?” But his anecdotal analysis of the “abomination” that he assesses the film as may also draw attention to something else: who is watching alongside the viewer when a (or the) “black story” is being told, and how does this collective viewing experience shape, distort or destroy a sense of community? “Foxx,” Reed writes, “is there for the audience that used to sit in the balcony at southern movie houses.” In this invocation of the movie houses of the racially segregated past, Reed’s response points to a crucial issue in the reception of Django: the historically and racially informed gaze. In particular, what his viewing experience invokes is a room in which the black gaze becomes displaced – marginalized, in fact, as if that gaze has been removed to “the balcony at southern movie houses.

'n Ondersoek na die aard van poësie, met verwysing na kinderpoësie en die "eenvoudige" poësie van N.P. van Wyk Louw en D.J. Opperman

Bibliography: pages 142-149.Dit is lank reeds 'n aanvaarde feit dat poësie nie 'n spontane uiting van emosie deur middel van ritmiese taal is nie; die aard van poësie skakel juis spontane!teit uit. Die tradisionele definisie van poësie, naamlik die beskouing daarvan as nie-mimetiese genre teenoor prosa wat mimeties is, is onvoldoende. In stede hiervan kan poësie as genre beskou word in die konteks van die reoriëntasie wat plaasgevind het in literatuur- en taalstudie. Die moderne literere teorieë het as doel die omskrywing van literatuur as stelsel, en die konvensies onderliggend daaraan wat betekening moontlik maak. Ook in moderne literatuur word die klem geplaas op die taal- en literatuursisteem, en op die skeppende teenwoordigheid in die teks. Binne hierdie beskouing van literatuur verval die opposisie tussen poësie en prosa tot 'n groot mate. Modernistiese literatuur is 'n selfbewuste gebruik van taal, geskep deur 'n auteur wat kennis het van die onderliggende konvensies. Hierdie definisie van poësie word getoets aan die hand van kinderpoësie, aangesien die tradisionele beskouing van poësie 'n geskiktheid vir kinders impliseer. Die kind se ontwikkeling word kortliks bespreek en daar word aangedui dat die .kind se denkprosesse en belewing van die wereld poësie onbegrypbaar maak. Die kind se ontwikkeling word bespreek met verwysing na Jean Piaget se genetiese epistemologie en Heinz Remplein se samevattende beskouing. Die kind beskik nie oor die kennis in verband met die konvensionele aard van literatuur en taal wat benodig word om poësie te begryp nie; nog is kinders in staat om dit aan te leer. Die aard van die konvensies is abstrak, terwyl die kind konkreetheid vereis ten opsigte van die taalgebruik en die inhoud van literatuur. Ten slotte word verwys na volkspoësie, wat dikwels as primitief en ongevormd beskou word. Die "Klipwerk"-siklus van N P van Wyk Louw en Komas uit 'n Bamboesstok van D J Opperman word bespreek. Daar word aangetoon dat die vermoë om nostalgies te skryf oor die primitiewe 'n hoë mate van selfbewustheid en taalbewustheid vereis. Die auteur in hierdie verse is selfreflekterend en skep 'n werk wat die konvensies van literatuur uitwys, en terselfdertyd bevraagteken. Poësie is dus in wese 'n konvensionele gebruik van taal, waarvan die selfreflekterende aard spontane!teit en eenvoud ontken

To Refuse Containment, to Resist Translation

This essay is concerned with translation in situations of linguistic or social inequality. Its focus is South African English and it relationship to the other South African languages. Its argument is that much of the translation work done in South Africa serves to extend and confirm monolingual privilege. Translation in official contexts in South Africa tends to happen into English, out of other South African languages, and the labour of translation is performed by heteroglots for the benefit of monolingual English-speakers, who are able to remain monoglot since the work is performed by someone else. A further inequality of this situation is the fact that monolingual South Africans tend to be English-speakers, and tend to be the beneficiaries of racially and linguistically determined privileges. When translation takes place out of other South African languages into South African English, this monolingual privilege can be confirmed and extended. The essay concludes that a refusal to translate out of African languages into South African English may be necessary in order to destabilize the hegemony of English

Mandela's Meanings: a Translated and Adapted Life

This paper reflects on the seeming ubiquity of representations of Nelson Mandela, and contrasts this with the years of silence and facelessness that have entered the mythological sphere - the 18 years he spent on Robben Island. The period when Mandela (through text or image) circulated the least has now in fact become the centrepiece of the narrative of his life. In this paper, I reconstitute some of the literary and photographic fragments of that era, one for which the biographical record is strikingly consistent ad repetitive. One anecdote that has been retold by every biographer is that of Mandela performing the role of King Creon in a production of Antigone. Interpreters typically cast this small incident in mythical and allegorical terms. Through reconstituting the scattered references to the performance, I show that these interpretations typically exaggerate and misread the anecdote. Thus the Antigone performance provides us instead, I argue, with an instance of a retrospective reading that exceeds the even