Literary Legacies of the South African TRC by Francesca Mussi

Author:Francesca Mussi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030430559
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

The presence of the child signals the extent to which the characters are willing to negotiate their reconciliation with the past. Whereas some scholars suggest that Harald and Claudia find “a new way of living in the new South Africa, no longer cocooned in their own ignorance” (Kossew 2001, p. 142; see also Stobie 2007), I rather argue that the couple’s attitude suggests a much more compromised level of reconciliation with the past. They are, in fact, initially reluctant to assume responsibility for the baby, and, only after Duncan’s request, do they accept to financially help the child, but on the condition that “arrangements should be made by Motsamai, and not in personal contact with them” (p. 291). Duncan hopes that in time Harald and Claudia will accept the child as part of their family, but, as for the present situation, they prefer avoiding any kind of contact with him and his mother Natalie, thus rejecting to embrace the promise of life the child can potentially represent.

By contrast, Duncan embodies a form of reconciliation that mirrors the contradictions of South Africa’s past. He blurs the boundaries in opposing pairs such as homonormativity and homosexuality, victim and perpetrator, life and death. Recalling a passage from Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain , in the solitude of his cell, Duncan realises the unbreakable bond between victim and perpetrator:The passage about the one who did it and the one to whom it was done. “It is absurd for the murderer to outlive the murdered. They two, alone together—as two beings are together in only one other human relationship, the one acting, the other suffering him—share a secret that binds them forever together. They belong to each other”. (p. 282)

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