Examining the Servant’s Subversive Verbal and Non-Verbal Expression in Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat

Abstract

The power struggle between Milla and Agaat in Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat (2006) is one based in language. While the matriarch’s perspective dominates the novel, thereby presumably silencing Agaat, the servant-cum-nurse employs alternative methods of communication, or mimetic gestures, to undermine Milla’s point of view. Through verbal and non-verbal measures, Agaat attempts to counteract the dying woman’s story. While these communicative measures rely on their finely nuanced and insidious attributes to function, they contain an essential ambivalence, as the controlling white woman never understands the full implications of her rejected child’s communication.

Opsomming

 Die magstryd tussen Milla en Agaat in Marlene van Niekerk se Agaat (2006) is gebaseer in taal. Terwyl die matriarg se perspektief die roman domineer, en vermoedelik vir Agaat stilmaak, gebruik die bediende-cum-verpleegster alternatiewe metodes van kommunikasie, of mimetiese gebare, om Milla se oogpunt te ondermyn. Deur verbale en nie-verbale maatreëls, poog Agaat om die sterwende vrou se storie teen te werk. Terwyl hierdie kommunikasiemetodes afhang van hul fyn genuanseerde en verraderlike hoedanighede om suksesvol te funksioneer, bevat hulle ʼn essensiële teenstrydigheid, aangesien die wit vrou nooit die volle implikasies van haar verstote kind se kommunikasie verstaan nie.