Summary

This article argues that Wicomb’s novel is concerned with how to represent intergenerational trauma in South Africa. It suggests that an important element of that representation is the concept of “recuperation”. This includes the action of recuperating past events that have been repressed socially and psychologically, and also the use of that “unburying” as the first step towards recuperative healing. Wicomb investigates different ways of representing both the trauma and the recuperation. Her examination is itself a commentary of how South African literature may consider representing the past and using literature as a tool of healing. She engages with different symbolic functions as adequate means of representing trauma, in particular myth and allegory, suggesting that these commonly used tropes may be useful, but are ultimately not fully adequate for recuperative narrative. As an alternative, she explores a symbolic mode which is as “real” to ordinary, traumatic, experience as it is possible to be. The South African writer, she suggests, should not seek meaning in arcane or western mythological modes, but in the traumatic life offered by the experience of the everyday, and in the objects that are strikingly “homely”, symbolic of the actions of those who have found ways to recuperate from trauma.

概括

本文认为，Wicomb的小说与如何代表南非的代际创伤有关。它表明，该表示的一个重要元素是“再存储”的概念。这包括恢复过去在社会和心理上受到压制的事件的行动，以及使用“埋葬”作为恢复康复的第一步。Wicomb研究了代表创伤和疗愈的不同方式。她的考试本身就是对南非文学如何考虑代表过去并将文学用作治疗手段的评论。她具有不同的象征功能，可以作为代表创伤的适当手段，尤其是神话和寓言，暗示这些常用的比喻可能是有用的，但最终不足以用于调理叙事。作为替代方案，她探索了一种象征性模式，这种模式对于可能的普通，创伤性体验是“真实的”。她建议，这位南非作家不应该在奥秘或西方神话模式中寻求意义，而应在日常体验所提供的创伤性生活中以及在令人惊讶的“居家”的物体中寻求意义，这些事物象征着那些已经找到了从创伤中恢复健康的方法。