Foregrounding Boundaries Between Self and Other in South Africa: A Comparative Analysis of The Lostness of Alice, The Good Doctor and Lost Ground

Abstract

The article considers the descendants of the original white settlers’ experience of space and place in terms of the perception of self and other as represented by the male protagonists who feature in three comparatively under-read novels of the post-apartheid period: John Conyngham’s The Lostness of Alice (1998), Damon Galgut’s The Good Doctor (2003) and Michiel Heyns’s Lost Ground (2011). After the election of a black-majority government, many white South African men feel that they can no longer negotiate a place that supplies them with a stable and secure sense of self. The novels’ three subjects, who exemplify the psychological condition of these men, endeavour to discover who they are and where they belong. Through the traversal of boundaries, the protagonists make connections with the outside world and the different other. The authors, likewise, stretch boundaries by implementing the narrative frame of the detective novel. To foreground the characters’ search for selfhood, belonging and meaning, reference is made in the article to aspects of identity formation in relation to the other, such as place, and the expansion of place by the navigation of boundaries.

Opsomming

Die artikel beskou die blanke setlaarafstammelinge se ervaring van ruimte en plek in terme van die persepsie van self en ander soos verteenwoordig deur die manlike protagoniste wat figureer in drie relatief-onbekende romans van die post-apartheids-periode: John Conyngham se The Lostness of Alice (1998), Damon Galgut se The Good Doctor (2003) en Michiel Heyns se Lost Ground (2011). Na die verkiesing van 'n swart meerderheidsregering, voel baie blanke Suid-Afrikaanse mans dat hulle nie meer 'n plek het wat hulle 'n stabiele en veilige gevoel van self bied nie. Die romans se drie hoofkarakters, wat die geestelike toestand van hierdie mans vergestalt, probeer om uit te vind wie hulle is en waar hulle behoort. Die protagoniste maak konneksies met die buitewêreld en die ander deur grensvlakke oor te steek. Die outeurs strek ook grense deur die narratiewe raamwerk van speurverhale te imple-menteer. Om die karakters se soeke na selfstandigheid, behorendheid en betekenis te beklemtoon, word daar in die artikel verwys na aspekte van identiteitsvorming in verhouding tot die ander, soos plek en die uitbreiding van plek deur die verkenning van grense.