“Like the Skin on Top of Boiled Milk”: Allegories of the Abject in Marlene van Niekerk’s Novels

Abstract

Marlene van Niekerk’s three novels, Triomf, Agaat and Memorandum: A Story with Paintings show a deliberate engagement with the abject and abjection in the Kristevan sense of the word. Kristeva examines abjection and its manifestations extensively in Powers of Horror (1982) and this text form the theoretical departure point for this analysis. Following Dovey (1988) my approach will be “drawing attention to the theoretical issues the novels articulate and to the modes of novelistic discourse with which they engage”. I will locate the traces of the abject in Van Niekerk’s novels and demonstrate to what extent the three texts under discussion reflect Kristeva’s viewpoints on abjection, the relationship with the maternal body and related themes within Kristeva’s critical project such as the boundary between the I as subject and the abject object, food loathing and the omnipresent struggle with the maternal hold over the subject.

Opsomming

 In Marlene van Niekerk se drie romans, Triomf, Agaat en Memorandum: ‘n Verhaal met Skilderye is daar ‘n ooglopende preokkupasie met die abjekte en abjeksie in die sin wat Kristeva dit gebruik. Kristeva ondersoek abjeksie en sy manifestering uitgebreid in Powers of Horror (1982) en hierdie teks vorm die teoretiese vertrekpunt vir my analise. In navolging van Dovey (1988) sal my benadering hoofsaaklik konsentreer op die teoretiese kwessies wat die romans artikuleer, asook die romandiskoersmodusse wat daarin voorkom. Ek sal die spore van die abjekte in Van Niekerk se romans nagaan en aantoon in watter mate hierdie drie tekste in gesprek tree met Kristeva se sienings oor abjeksie, die verhouding met die moederliggaam en verwante temas wat deel uitmaak van Kristeva se kritiese projek, soos die grens tussen die ek-subjek en abjekte objek, weersinwekkende kossoorte en die ewige stryd teen die moeder se houvas op die subjek.