Animals and Desire in South African Fiction: Biopolitics and the Resistance to Colonization PDF
Preview Animals and Desire in South African Fiction: Biopolitics and the Resistance to Colonization
Animals and Desire in South African Fiction Biopolitics and the Resistance to Colonization Jason D. Price Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature Series editors Susan McHugh English Department University of New England Biddeford, ME, USA Robert McKay School of English University of Sheffield Sheffield, UK John Miller School of English University of Sheffield Sheffield, UK Before the 2000s the humanities and social sciences paid little attention to the participation of non-human animals in human cultures. The entrenched idea of the human as a unique kind of being nourished a presumption that Homo sapiens should be the proper object of study for these fields, to the exclusion of lives beyond the human. Against this background, various academic disciplines can now be found in the process of executing an ‘animal turn’, questioning the ethical and philosophical grounds of human exceptionalism by taking seriously the animal presences that haunt the margins of history, anthropology, philoso- phy, sociology and literary studies. Instances of such work are grouped under the umbrella term ‘animal studies’, having largely developed in relation to a series of broad, cross-disciplinary questions. How might we rethink and problema- tise the separation of the human from other animals? What are the ethical and political stakes of our relationships with other species? How might we locate and understand the agency of animals in human cultures? While debates around these themes continue to develop across academic disciplines, this series will publish work that looks, more specifically, at the implications of the ‘animal turn’ for the field of English Studies. Language is often thought of as the key marker of humanity’s difference from other species; animals may have codes, calls or songs, but humans have a mode of communication of a wholly other order. Literature, as the apogee of linguistic expression in its complexity and subtlety, may there- fore seem a point at which ‘the human’ seems farthest removed from the world of ‘the animal’. Our primary motivation is to muddy this assumption and to ani- malise the canons of English Literature by rethinking representations of animals and interspecies encounter.Whereas animals are conventionally read as objects of fable, allegory or metaphor (that is, as signs of specifically human concerns), this series significantly extends the new insights of interdisciplinary animal studies by tracing the engagement of such figuration with the material lives of animals. The series will encourage the examination of textual cultures as variously embodying a debt to or an intimacy with non-human animal and advance understanding of how the aesthetic engagements of literary arts have always done more than sim- ply illustrate natural history. Consequently, we will publish studies of the repre- sentation of animals in literary texts across the chronological range of English studies from the Middle Ages to the present and with reference to the discipline’s key thematic concerns, genres and critical methods. This will be the first series to explore animal studies within the context of literary studies; together, the vol- umes (comprising monographs, edited collections of essays and some shorter studies in the Palgrave Pivot format) will constitute a uniquely rich and thorough scholarly resource on the involvement of animals in literature. The series will focus on literary prose and poetry, while also accommodating related discussion of the full range of materials and texts and contexts (from theatre and film to fine art, journalism, the law, popular writing and other cultural ephemera) with which English studies now engages. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14649 Jason D. Price Animals and Desire in South African Fiction Biopolitics and the Resistance to Colonization Jason D. Price University of North Alabama Florence, AL USA Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature ISBN 978-3-319-56725-9 ISBN 978-3-319-56726-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56726-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017938318 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Steve Bloom Images/Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland For Colleen, Revis (the dog), and Carter—my partners in learning and practicing the arts of love A cknowledgements One never writes alone, and many people have contributed to helping me to write this book. The project began as dissertation, and I am indebted to many professors, friends, and family members who have read parts of the work, engaged in conversations about its ideas, and otherwise sup- ported this scholarship. Thanks, of course, are also due to the authors and filmmaker; without their creative efforts, this work would not have been possible. Thanks go as well to the human and non-human animals who may have inspired and supported their writing. Acknowledgements are due especially to the professors of my dissertation committee at Arizona State University for their thoughtful and generous guidance of this project in its early stages. Thank you to Joni Adamson, J. Edward Mallot, and Ron Broglio for their inspired support, criticisms, and feed- back throughout the writing of an early draft of the book. Our discus- sions of indigenous studies, feminism, ecocriticism, postcolonial studies, posthumanism, and animal studies have been invaluable to my think- ing. Any flaws found in this book are my own and not of their making. Sincere thanks go to Eddie Mallot as well for his positive mentorship, support, and humor—our conversations helped me to imagine a future for myself as a scholar. Special thanks are due to Ron Broglio for direct- ing the dissertation and for his dedication to the profession, his unflag- ging positivity and hospitality as a mentor, and for his commitment to thinking the “animal revolution.” As a young scholar, I’ve been repeat- edly blessed with the finest mentors. Thanks go to the many English and vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS literature teachers, professors, and mentors—especially Cassandra Jackson and Angela Weisl—who have encouraged my scholarship over the years. Thanks go also to the scholars whose work has established the many fields of scholarship to which this book seeks to contribute. Much of the writing here began as conference papers delivered at Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts and African Literature Association con- ferences. My sincere thanks go to those who organized these conferences, and to the organization members whose scholarship, conversations, and feedback have inspired this project. Thanks go as well to the Graduate and Professional Student Association at Arizona State University (ASU), the Socio-Legal Studies Association, the United States Military Academy (USMA), Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and family for their financial support for conference travel. Sincere thanks go to ASU as well for the dissertation completion fellowship, which enabled me to continue the research and writing that eventually became this book. Thanks go also to friends, colleagues, and family who have carefully read or otherwise discussed the ideas in this book. Most profound thanks go to the anonymous reviewer of the manuscript who provided sug- gestions for revision that have greatly improved it. Thanks go to Jenny Downer and Alaya Swann, who provided vital feedback on the earliest drafts of the project. Thanks go to colleagues at VCU, particularly those in the First Book Group at the Humanities Research Center, for their criticisms and generous feedback, especially Chris Cynn, Myrl Beam, Cristina Stanciu, and Jesse Goldstein. Of course, I should like to thank VCU’s English Department and David Latané for the postdoctoral fel- lowship that has enabled me to complete this project. Thanks go also to USMA’s Department of English & Philosophy and Pat Query, who organized a literature course around the theme “the arts of love.” Also, many thanks go to Alastair Hunt for his feedback on Chap. 5. I should also like to express my gratitude to those who have advanced conversations or created new forums for discussions about the issues cen- tral to this book. In this spirit, I’d like to thank Susan McHugh, Bob McKay, and John Miller, the founding editors of the Studies in Animals and Literature book series at Palgrave. Thanks go also to the editors at Palgrave: Ryan Jenkins, Allie Bochicchio, and Emily Janakiram. It’s been a pleasure to work with you and I thank you for your patience as I completed this project. Thanks go also to the Institute for Humanities Research at ASU for hosting the Animal Studies Research Cluster in ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix 2014, and for inviting key theorists of animal studies and environmental- ism. Thanks go also to the graduate student-organized ASU postcolonial studies group led by Sebastian Terneus for creating a forum for people to discuss postcolonial literatures. Thanks are due as well to the students who have taken literature classes with me, especially those who enrolled in the animals in postcolonial literature courses that I taught at ASU and VCU. Their contributions and critical perspectives have influenced the direction of this book. My utmost thanks are due to my partner Colleen, who has so selflessly supported me and our family, making the time avail- able for me to write and pursue this scholarship. Last, but not least, I am especially grateful to my sister Jodi, who is currently completing her Ph.D. in literature, for our many theoretical conversations, for our shar- ing of our work and feedback, and for her unwavering support. Thank you all and any others I’ve forgotten. An earlier version of Chap. 3 first appeared as “Ways of Desiring: Postcolonial Affect in Zakes Mda’s The Whale Caller” in Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Technology, and Culture 25, no. 1 (January, 2017): 57–88. Copyright © 2017 The Johns Hopkins University Press. Thanks go to the journal for permission to reproduce that article here. Thanks go as well to the anonymous reviewers for their feedback on that essay. c ontents 1 Introduction: Sameness and Difference in the “New” South Africa—Desire and Nonhuman Resistance 1 2 Space and Desire on the (non)Farm: The Return of the Same in Disgrace and The Devil’s Chimney 63 3 Ways of Desiring: Postcolonial Animals and Affect in The Whale Caller 115 4 Consuming the Other and the Ethics of “Eating”: Dominant Desire in Tanuki Ichiban and the Mother of All Eating 147 5 Desire and the Law: Creative Resistance in the Reluctant Passenger and the Heart of Redness 181 6 Coda: Transformative Encounters: Desiring Aliens and Hospitality in District 9 237 Index 271 xi
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