The politics of repentance in Alan Paton's Cry, the beloved country
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Date
1999
Authors
Risi, Eugene
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Abstract
This research project examines the way in which Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved
Country addresses the crisis within South African society in relation to its so
called Native Policy, in the years 1940 - 1948. The problems of housing, crime,
land depletion, the break-down of tribal institutions etc. were all being debated
within the context of various ideological positions. In his novel, Paton makes his
own voice felt within the context of a Christian Liberal paradigm. In this
regard I have explored the characteristics of Christian Liberalism, its strengths
and weaknesses, and its relation to the competing discourses of the period, in
particular those of the government's policy of segregation on the right, and the
growing strength of the ANC and the Labour Movement on the left. The novel
positions itself both in terms of protest and containment, and in terms of what I
have called the politics of repentance calls on whites to embrace a more
equitable model of society based on Christian and Liberal principles in a spirit
of conversion and brotherly love, while eschewing a more radical approach to
the dismantling of an order rooted in British colonialism, largely because of the
imputed violent implications of such change. Paton's visionary appeal is thus
limited by both his own political leanings as well as by the pastoral ideal within
which he expresses his inspiration.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Arts, 1999