Lacuna by Fiona Snyckers

Author:Fiona Snyckers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Europa Editions
Published: 2021-12-06T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

I’m still sat at my desk trying to write my op-ed for The New York Times. That’s what the English say, isn’t it? I was sat at my desk . . . I was stood in the corner. In South Africa, we are more likely to say I was sitting at my desk . . . I was standing in the corner. Is it cultural appropriation for me to use the English form?

I laugh immoderately at the idea.

Cultural appropriation only becomes relevant where there is a current or historical imbalance of power between the two cultures—where the culture that is doing the borrowing is mainstream and the culture that is being plundered is marginalised. As a white South African, I can borrow the cultural spoils of Britain as much as I like and suffer no penalty other than to be considered pretentious.

A flash of light ignites my brain, and the room is filled with the chorus of a thousand angels.

Would that not be a fruitful line for me to tug in my op-ed for the NYT? Cultural appropriation?

John Coetzee has appropriated my story, one that was mine to tell. He seized it with his greedy, patriarchal fingers and snatched it from me. He has profited from it, both in monetary terms and in the career capital that has accrued to him.

In terms of race and class we are on an equal footing, but in every other respect he is my senior. He is older than me. He was a professor in the English Department while I was a junior lecturer. He is a man and I am a woman. There are not many things you can claim for yourself once you have been raped, but surely the right to tell your own story is one of them?

Yes. I can work with this.

I must whip up the outrage sufficiently so that anyone who points out that we could both tell the story is drowned out. Or dismissed as a cis-het, heteronormative, privileged, patriarchal misogynist.

The trouble with writing an op-ed for The New York Times is that you can’t be emotional. This isn’t Jezebel or Bitch Media. The NYT expects facts and reasoned argument, those trappings of normative oppression. The NYT is the very home of respectability politics. If I don’t play by the rules, I won’t be let in the door.

Being let in the door is important to me. John Coetzee can ignore me in every other forum, but if my story makes it to the NYT, he will be forced to pay attention.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.