ABSTRACT

Reflecting on narratives collected as part of the Apartheid Archive Project, a memory project of “ordinary” experiences of living under apartheid, this paper engages with stories that articulate white South Africans’ shame/ful relationships with Black female domestic workers. It is increasingly of concern that the dominant response to apartheid abuses are to consider them “in the past” in order to avoid discomforting reminders. Shame and its silencing effect, as feminist and other critical literature shows, is bound up with relations of power, legitimating privilege and subjugation. Yet, shame may also be deployed as narrative strategy to deal with subjective discomfort and guilt by those seeking to disentangle themselves from association with social privilege and its abuses. How do we respond to narratives that may have both effects? Drawing on contemporary critical pedagogies, such as the work of Zembylas that specifically engage with the affective turn, and guided by Probyn’s argument that shame is a powerful resource of social critique, this paper suggests productive possibilities of such narratives in contemporary South Africa. While acknowledging contestations, an argument is made for the value of stories of shame/shaming towards troubling the erasure of apartheid and its continuities in the present while also disrupting the denial of historical and current complicity with power and privilege.

摘要

考虑到作为种族隔离档案项目一部分收集的叙述，这是一个关于种族隔离下“普通”生活经验的记忆项目，本文涉及一些讲述南非白人与黑人女性家庭工人的耻辱/良好关系的故事。越来越多的人担心，种族隔离滥用的主要对策是将其视为“过去”，以避免令人不快的提醒。正如女权主义者和其他批判文学所表明的那样，羞耻及其消极作用与权力关系，合法特权和征服关系紧密相关。然而，羞耻也可能被用作叙事策略，以应对那些试图摆脱与社会特权及其滥用的联系的人们的主观不适和内gui感。我们如何回应可能同时具有两种效果的叙述？借鉴当代批评教学法，例如专门与情感转向相关的塞姆比亚斯的著作，并在普罗宾认为羞耻感是社会批判的强大资源这一论点的指导下，本文提出了这种叙事在当代南非的生产可能性。在承认有争执的同时，有人提出了羞耻/羞辱的故事的价值，以解决目前对种族隔离制度的消除及其连续性的困扰，同时也破坏了对历史和当前对权力和特权的同谋的否定。本文提出了这种叙事在当代南非的生产可能性。在承认争执的同时，有人提出了羞耻/羞辱的故事的价值，这些故事对于扰乱种族隔离制度的消除及其在当前的连续性，同时也破坏了对历史和当前对权力和特权的同谋的否认。本文提出了这种叙事在当代南非的生产可能性。在承认争执的同时，有人提出了羞耻/羞辱的故事的价值，这些故事对于扰乱种族隔离制度的消除及其在当前的连续性，同时也破坏了对历史和当前对权力和特权的同谋的否认。