Narrating an Other and Each Other : Collaborative Constructions of Selfhood in There Was This Goat: Investigating the Truth Commission Testimony of Notrose Nobomvu Konile
Siméus, Jenny LU
(2018)
In Life Writing
15(2).
p.243-254
- Abstract
- The aim of this article is to examine the textual constructions of selfhood in the South African narrative There Was This Goat: Investigating the Truth Commission Testimony of Notrose Nobomvu Konile (2009), co-authored by Antjie Krog, Nosisi Mpolweni and Kopano Ratele. There Was This Goat is dedicated to understanding Mrs Konile and her Truth and Reconciliation Commission testimony given in Xhosa, a testimony which many found incomprehensible. I trace and read Mrs Konile through the lens of Judith Butler and her ideas about self-narration and through Sarah Nuttall’s concept of entanglement. These two approaches underline the social aspects of both self-narration and identity formation through narration, and therefore assist me in... (More)
- The aim of this article is to examine the textual constructions of selfhood in the South African narrative There Was This Goat: Investigating the Truth Commission Testimony of Notrose Nobomvu Konile (2009), co-authored by Antjie Krog, Nosisi Mpolweni and Kopano Ratele. There Was This Goat is dedicated to understanding Mrs Konile and her Truth and Reconciliation Commission testimony given in Xhosa, a testimony which many found incomprehensible. I trace and read Mrs Konile through the lens of Judith Butler and her ideas about self-narration and through Sarah Nuttall’s concept of entanglement. These two approaches underline the social aspects of both self-narration and identity formation through narration, and therefore assist me in approaching the authors as simultaneous characters in the text, recipients of Mrs Konile’s narrative, and creators of the textually represented Mrs Konile. The authors’ dual function as writers of and characters within the narrative is an important factor which has been only briefly considered in much of the previous scholarly research on this multivoiced life writing text. This article argues that Mrs Konile is disempowered by the structure of the narrative, which positions her as a passive object of study rather than an active subject of her own life narrative. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/32f89a70-aa8b-40f3-bfdb-56c1bf94d5d8
- author
- Siméus, Jenny
LU
- publishing date
- 2018
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Notrose Nobomvu Konile, There Was This Goat, Collaborative life writing, South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- in
- Life Writing
- volume
- 15
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 243 - 254
- publisher
- Routledge
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85021833284
- ISSN
- 1448-4528
- DOI
- 10.1080/14484528.2017.1345292
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 32f89a70-aa8b-40f3-bfdb-56c1bf94d5d8
- date added to LUP
- 2021-08-13 14:31:52
- date last changed
- 2022-04-19 07:21:59
@article{32f89a70-aa8b-40f3-bfdb-56c1bf94d5d8,
abstract = {{The aim of this article is to examine the textual constructions of selfhood in the South African narrative There Was This Goat: Investigating the Truth Commission Testimony of Notrose Nobomvu Konile (2009), co-authored by Antjie Krog, Nosisi Mpolweni and Kopano Ratele. There Was This Goat is dedicated to understanding Mrs Konile and her Truth and Reconciliation Commission testimony given in Xhosa, a testimony which many found incomprehensible. I trace and read Mrs Konile through the lens of Judith Butler and her ideas about self-narration and through Sarah Nuttall’s concept of entanglement. These two approaches underline the social aspects of both self-narration and identity formation through narration, and therefore assist me in approaching the authors as simultaneous characters in the text, recipients of Mrs Konile’s narrative, and creators of the textually represented Mrs Konile. The authors’ dual function as writers of and characters within the narrative is an important factor which has been only briefly considered in much of the previous scholarly research on this multivoiced life writing text. This article argues that Mrs Konile is disempowered by the structure of the narrative, which positions her as a passive object of study rather than an active subject of her own life narrative.}},
author = {{Siméus, Jenny}},
issn = {{1448-4528}},
keywords = {{Notrose Nobomvu Konile; There Was This Goat; Collaborative life writing; South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{243--254}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
series = {{Life Writing}},
title = {{Narrating an Other and Each Other : Collaborative Constructions of Selfhood in There Was This Goat: Investigating the Truth Commission Testimony of Notrose Nobomvu Konile}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14484528.2017.1345292}},
doi = {{10.1080/14484528.2017.1345292}},
volume = {{15}},
year = {{2018}},
}