Fugard: deconstructing the context

Abstract

Notebooks: 1960-1977 shows Fugard, an avowedly anti-theoretical and anti-academic artist, to be a close reader who like Derrida and other deconstructionists reveals the self­incrimination and duplicity in the intimate recesses of all language, including his own. As, according to Derrida, our very relation to language already functions like a text the boundaries between Fugard's literary texts and the general socio-cultural and political situation from which his texts emanate (extra-text) blur into what can be called Fugard's context. Thus, in deconstructing Fugard's context the present study looks at both the deconstruction by Fugard of the extra-text and the self-deconstruction in Fugard's work. It concludes with the suggestion that deconstruction, considered by some as a negative enterprise sinning against common sense and patience, could offer a way of resolving the conflict in the critical evaluation of Fugard between those who seek the universal in his work and those who maintain he should be more specifically regional or political. Derrida's experience of the necessity for deconstruction to expose what has been suppressed in opposition-rich framework structures such as government decrees, suggests the possi­bility of meaningful politicization of Fugard's plays within the South African context by means of the non-confrontational de-construction of the claim to unequivocal domination of one mode of signifying over another.

Opsomming
Fugard, 'n uitgesproke anti-teoretikus wat hoogs krities staan teenoor 'n soganaamde akademiese benadering tot die literatuur, openbaar in Notebooks: 1960-1977 'n Derri­diaanse en dekonstruktiewe bewustheid van die self-inkriminering en valsheid wat diep in alle taalvorme skuil, ook in sy eie. Aangesien, volgens Derrida, selfs ons verhouding met taal alreeds as 'n teks funksioneer, vervaag die grense tussen Fugard se literere tekste en die sosio-kulturele en politieke situasie waarin hulle ontstaan (ekstra-teks), tot wat genoem kan word Fugard se konteks. 'n Dekonstruksie van Fugard se konteks behels dus in die onderhawige studie twee aspekte: die dekonstruksie deur Fugard van die ekstra-teks en die self-dekonstruksie binne sy werk. Hierdie benadering tot Fugard se werk werp soda­nige lig op dekonstruksie as 'n onderneming, dat wat voorheen deur sommige beskou is as negatief en ondermynend, nou moontlikhede bied vir verheldering: dekonstruksie sou die botsende sienings van kritici wat die universele in Fugard se werk soek en die wat te min van die plaaslike (polities, ens.) daarin vind, kon versoen. Derrida vestig die aandag op die noodsaak vir dekonstruksie om dit te ontbloot wat deur opposisie-belaaide raamwerkstruk­ture soos bv. regeringsbesluite onderdruk word. Nie-konfronterende de-konstruksie van die aanspraak tot 'n ondubbelsinnige oorheersing deur enige spesifieke betekenismodus sou kon lei tot sinvolle politisering van Fugard se dramas binne die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks.