Identities in Transition: The 1990 High Court Case and Unity Dow's The Heavens May Fall

Abstract

In both her life and fiction, Unity Dow's consuming engagement resides in exploring issues of female entrapment and related notions of identity (or subjectivity) predi­cated on the idea of the embodied, sexualised and racialised "other", an identity that conforms to the phallogocentric format of the patriarchal imaginary. In her personal struggles (as exemplified by the 1990 High Court Case with her Government over citizen laws) as well as in her fiction, in this case The Heavens May Fall, Dow adopts and constructs subject-positions (for herself, her fellow women and children) that are not only creative but also, and more to the point, that present the idea of identity as a matter of becoming, and characterised by nomadic, syncretised and hybridised cultural forms. Drawing on the 1990 court case and the above novel, this article explores the extent to which Dow's life and her fiction embody the kind of subjectivity that allows for multiple modes of belonging and celebrates borderlands of cultures. The article argues that Dow not only challenges the phallogocentrism (and related misplaced forms of modernity) but also relocates the idea of culture in multiple locations, routes and movements.

Opsomming
In sowel haar lewe as haar fiksie le Unity Dow se intense betrokkenheid in die verkenning van die vrou se verstrikking en haar gepaardgaande identiteitsbegrippe (of subjektiwiteit) wat berus op die idee van die vergestalte "ander" waaraan seksuele en raskenmerke toegedig word. Die identiteit van hierdie "ander" word bepaal deur die fallogosentrisme van die patriargale denkbeeld. In sowel haar per­soonlike stryd (soos ge'illustreer deur die hooggeregshofsaak van 1990 teen haar regering oor burgerwetgewing) as in haar romans, in hierdie geval The Heavens May Fall, skep Dow subjekposisies (vir haarself, ander vroue en kinders) wat nie net skeppend is nie maar, meer relevant, lei tot die idee dat identiteit oor wording gaan en gekenmerk word deur nomadiese, gesinkretiseerde en verbasterde kultuurvorme. Met verwysing na die 1990-hofsaak en die bostaande roman verken hierdie artikel die mate waarin Dow se lewe en werk gestalte gee aan die soort subjektiwiteit wat velerlei maniere van behoort moontlik maak en die grensgebiede van kulture ver­heerlik. Daar word aangevoer dat Dow nie net die fallogosentrisme (en verwante misplaaste vorme van moderniteit) aanval nie, maar ook die idee van kultuur na talle plekke, bewegings en allerlei roetes herlei.