Mapping Apartheid and Post-apartheid Literary Geographies: A Geocritical Reading of Spatial Narratives in Selected IsiZulu Novels

Abstract

The notions of space and place discourses have predominantly occupied the modern multidisciplinary theoretical conventions. Scholars across fields grapple with the question of the epoch of the Anthropocene, climate crisis, globalisation, immigration, neocolonialism, and power. In literary scholarship, the critical analysis of space and place in South African literature has traditionally been dominated by African literary works written in English, with their texts serving as the primary corpus for spatial literary analysis. While African languages text engages richly with the question of space, its spatial theoretical treatment remains scarce. The underrepresentation of African language literature within the spatial paradigm stems from the fact that the entire scope of literature in indigenous languages has been considered a failed enterprise, immature, and thus relegated to the margins in literary studies. This study, therefore, aims to recenter and expand the theoretical scope of African language literature through examining the application of geocriticism, an emerging literary theory, to specifically isiZulu literature. Over the past three decades, the humanities and social sciences have expanded theoretical lenses from focusing solely on time and history to incorporating space and place. However, African language literary theory has largely remained rooted in structuralist and formalist approaches or repetitive theoretical paradigms, whilst the conceptualisation of space in these literary forms is afforded little to no extensive theoretical depth. This research aims to bridge this gap by exploring how geocriticism can illuminate the representation of place in both apartheid and post-apartheid literature in African languages. Using a qualitative methodology, the study employs thematic analysis, geocritical theory tenets, and decoloniality to assess the significance of space and place in four selected isiZulu novels: Inkinsela yaseMgungudlovu (1961) by S. Nyembezi, Ulaka LwabaNguni (1988) by I.S. Kubheka, Iziboshwa Zothando (2004) by M.J. Mngadi, and Ngiyolibala Ngifile (2010) by E.D.M. Sibiya. Through this lens, the study highlights the evolving role of geocriticism in the analysis of African language literature and examines the extent to which these texts are committed to engaging in pertinent sociopolitical and spatial issues. The analysis exhibits that space in African literary texts functions as a narrative literary cartography tool, nested in African cosmologies such as toponyms, metaphysical places to engage on pertinent political issues, to critique marginalisation, and to critique sociopolitical issues such as racism, violence, gender disparities, coloniality of knowledge, and coloniality of being.