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Subjectivities of Whiteness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Sarah Nuttall
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Abstract:

This article focuses on constructions of whiteness in South African autobiographies and other narratives of the self. It attempts to understand how the category of whiteness—racial, social, political, and economic—is given meaning in this context. The essay departs from US- and British-based studies of whiteness, as well as from African studies of “settlers.” It aims to draw out the particularities of the South African context and the ways in which whiteness emerges within the tropes of looking, watching, masking, concealment, transfiguration, and secrecy in these texts. It shows that the play between visibility and invisibility emerges as a central paradox in this body of writing. Thus it attempts to shift contemporary South African discussions away from racism per se toward a discussion of how race works in psychical, symbolic, and political terms. It considers amplifications of whitenesses which may have been at odds with official and critical orthodoxies in order to approach registers out of which whiteness may come to be situated differently in this context.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Cet article se concentre sur les constructions de la notion de blancheur dans les autobiographies Sud-Africaines et autres récits narratifs du soi. Nous essayons de comprendre comment, dans ce contexte, est attribué un sens à cette catégorie de blancheur—raciale, sociale, politique et économique. Cet article se démarque des études sur la race blanche basées aux États Unis et au Royaume Uni, ainsi que des études africaines des “colons.” Notre but est d'isoler les particularités du contexte sud-africain et les manières dont la blancheur émerge dans ces textes dans les tropes du voir, regarder, masquer, cacher, de la transfiguration et du secret. Notre article démontre que le jeu entre visibilité et invisibilité émerge en tant que paradoxe central dans ce corps d'écriture. Nous tentons ainsi de transposer les discussions sud-africaines contemporaines en deçà du racisme en lui-même, dans la direction d'un débat sur la façon dont le concept de race fonctionne en termes psychiques, symboliques et politiques. Nous considérons les extensions de la blancheur qui ont pu se trouver en désaccord avec les orthodoxies officielles et critiques, afin d'aborder des registres hors desquels la blancheur, dans ce contexte, pourrait bien se situer de manière différente.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 44 , Issue 2: Ways of Seeing: Beyond the New Nativism: A Special Issue , September 2001 , pp. 115 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2001

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