Chapter review of 'The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee' in J. M. Coetzee's "Dusklands"

J. M. Coetzee’s Dusklands is an antagonising interaction with the violence of colonialism, and later with imperialism. The novel which deals with two very different protagonist and stories still has an unnatural ability to draw in the reader, make them uncomfortable and still enthrals them enough to keep them reading. This review focuses on, “The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee”, the second novella of the book which focuses on the ever “charming” Jacobus and his exploits.

At first glance, the story of Jacobus is a simple one that follows the story of a man trekking up north in southern Africa with his Korana slaves in order to hunt elephants in Namaqualand. The story is solely depicted through the perspective of Jacobus, with his description of events, being all that the reader is presented with. This particular form of narration allows for Jacobus to no only relate the stories to the reader, but more importantly, it acts as a tool to show the discussions which he has with himself, which allows for interesting avenues into how the novella is read.

This form of narration allows for two very important things to happen: it gives the reader a very vivid account of Jacobus himself, and it makes the reader aware of the ‘other’, the individuals who are outside of Jacobus himself. These two occurrences in conjunction with one another, draws the reader in further and further, making them question and allowing them to be inquisitive about the story as they are constantly aware of Jacobus and his train of thought while also being blatantly aware of those around him, regardless of the fact that they are never given a voice of their own.

This is what makes the entire novel, and this particular novella, so alluring. It uses this unique narrative to take something as disgusting as Jacobus prodding a pus filled pimple in his buttocks or something as horrible as Jacobus committing genocide against a large group of people from Namaqua, and makes it so enticing to the point where you are unable to avert your gaze.

The novel is jarring, disgusting, discomforting and provocative but thoroughly engaging and enticing. The novel’s unique narrative and J. M. Coetzee’s gripping writing, successfully draws in the reader and requires the reader to question and grapple with various ideas brought forward on various levels within the story.

Works used

Coetzee, J. M. Dusklands. Great Britain: Vintage, 2004. Print.

     

The Lost World of the Kalahari by Laurens van der Post

Chapter Review: Van der Post, Laurens. The Lost World of the Kalahari. Great Britain: Hogarth Press. 1958. Print.

"This is the story of a journey in a great wasteland and a search for some pure remnant of the unique and almost vanished First People of my native land, the Bushman of Africa" (van der Post 11).

This is the opening line to chapter one “The Vanished People” and to the book. Through chapter one van der Post takes the reader on a journey of the “Bushman of Africa” (11). Van der Post describes the physique of the Bushman, the sound of the language and their way of life. The language used to describe the physical appearance of the Bushman is compared to animals and seems to be a transparent description of their bodies; a description that makes the Bushman seems as “the other”. Van der Post describes a man’s figure to that of a “Ruben’s Cupid, protruding in front and even more behind” (13). He continues to say that the Bushman “had a behind which served it rather as the hump serves a camel” (13). These are one of the many ways that van der Post uses to describe the Bushman. The sound of the language he says is a “joy to hear, and the click of the complex consonants flashes on his tongue” (15).

Van der Post also uses stories told to him by his grandfather, aunt and a cattle-herder to tell the stories of the Bushman and their ways of life. One story that is beautiful of the way the Bushmen hunt is that they “use the lion as his hunting dog” (19). Van der Post explains that the Bushman would follow the lion and allow the lion to kill and eat his prey to feed on only enough to satisfy his hunger. The Bushman would then scare the lion away with smoke and fire to eat the rest. This story shows how the Bushman lived within nature and used what nature gave them to survive. Van der Post says that the Bushman never killed for fun but only for survival. This is shown on the rock art, as Van der Post writes that it is “there in his paintings on his beloved rock for those who can see with their hearts as well as their eyes” (22).

Images from Jonathan Stedall

Reading this chapter of van der Post made me think of other researchers and writers of Africa, those like Eugene Marais, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Francois Levaillant. All experts in their fields of study, they observed and wrote about human life and behaviour in Africa. Van der Post’s writing is describing the life of the Bushman and Hottentots and not necessarily comparing them to apes but in all contexts the Bushman or Hottentots are seen as “the other”. Sometimes through van der Post’s writing he seems to describe people other than the Bushman as the other in Africa. He describes the Bushman as decorating the rocks with paintings and says that “other races went through Africa like locusts, devouring and stripping the land” but the Bushman is there because he belongs there (32). Van der Post shows a contrasting view of the Bushman who uses nature to survive and “other races” that use Africa to get what they want out of it (32). This also in a way compliments J.M. Coetzee’s chapter in White Writings about the idleness of the Hottentots in Africa. Both show that the way of life for the Bushman and Hottentots is not one of laziness but respecting nature and living as part of nature and not superior to nature.

Image from Tara/David Coulson

Van der Post has a beautiful writing style, which is in between a narrative style and that of a study of the people. He adds in stories from family and other people and this gives the chapter a human aspect with human experiences. Van der Post has a rich descriptive way of writing which allows the reader to visualize what he is writing about.

Works Cited: 

Stedall, Jonathan. “Free to Love”. Jonathan Stedall. Web. 22 April 2016.

http://jonathanstedall.co.uk/heaven/sample.php

The British Museum. "Rock Art in North Africa". Khanacademy. Web. 22 April 2016.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-africa/north-a/algeria-and-libya/a/rock-art-in-north-africa

Review: Introduction to Black Hamlet – Jacqueline Rose

The mind of an African and the writings of a psychoanalyst.

Black Hamlet by Wulf Sachs is a book about the relationship between two men, Wulf Sach a psychoanalyst and John Chavafambira a Zimbabwean nganga (witch-doctor). Chavafambira moved to Johannesburg, South Africa in the late 1920's. Sachs was the first practicing psychoanalyst to come to South Africa and wrote about Chavafambira. The Johns Hopkins edition of Black Hamlet has two introductions, one by Saul Dubow and the other one by Jacqueline Rose. Dubow focuses his introduction on the historical, anthropological and political world of the book, where Rose has a more psychological focus.

I apologize in advance if I do not highlight every that Rose talks about. Black Hamlet is a rich text and it is not possible for me to mention everything. The narrative in terms of its “pull”, is seen “as engrossing as fiction” mentioned in the Evergreen edition and a reader can complete this compelling book one sitting (40). Rose says that Sachs' choice in choosing Shakespeare's Hamlet was “because of the remarkable narrative affinities between Hamlet's tale and Chavafambira's” (40).

Rose makes reference to the history of Shakespeare's play Hamlet and its similarities to Sachs Black Hamlet. Through this, Rose says we as readers can re-read Hamlet backwards – that is, the story can be identified as a form of “personhood bereft once outside its collectively or ancestrally sanctioned domain” (41).

Throughout her introduction, Rose refers to Freud and his work. Freud can be seen as the founder of psychoanalysis therapy. Rose relates Freud's work and studies to Black Hamlet and to what Sachs was probably doing at the time. Rose says that it is clear in Black Hamlet that the analyst, “fervently wishes for the patient's political emancipation, locks the patient into the imaginary world of his own demands” (44-45).

Maggie becomes an important person for Rose and she is mentioned along side Chavafambira. Maggie comes between the relationship of Chavafambira and Sachs. She becomes a warning for their relationship and is convinced that “no good will come of mixing black and white medicines” (Sachs 287). Rose mentions that in Black Hamlet, Sachs tries to diagnose the women in the book and “attempts a brief analysis of Maggie...these women are beyond the analytical pale” (63). Rose states that it is not that the women set a status of “truth” or that they set limits to what psychoanalysis can do in Africa but rather that psychoanalysis does not have the last word, physically or politically, in Africa (63). This can in the end be seen as the “fundamental principal of psychoanalysis” (64).

Rose has an easy to read style and is understandable. She simplifies the psychological aspect of the book by also showing the similarities between Sachs and Chavafambira. For me, the psychology of the book questions both Chavafambira as well as Sachs' story.

In as much as this is a story of John Chavafambira, Sachs “has made this his own” (39). This can be seen as a story of both the native and the colonial.

Work Cited

Sachs, Wulf. Black Hamlet. 1996 [1937]. Introduction by Jacqueline Rose. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1996. Print.

Eugene Marais' "The Soul of the Ape": A review of Chapter 5: Addiction and Depression

Eugene Marais’, The Soul of the Ape, holds an interesting chapter titled, Addiction and Depression, in which he discusses addiction to narcotics, which he calls poisons, and how depression could be linked to the cause of this addiction within the Chacma. He examines the Chacma’s addiction to certain fruit and draws comparisons to the phenomenon of addiction among humans. How he draws this comparison is definitely worth exploring, and the language which he uses within this chapter also differs from his other chapters, and the change in writing is quite fascinating.   

The Soul of the Ape, is a document of the observation of the Chacma baboons in the Northern Transvaal’s Waterberg over a period of 3 years by Marais, and is written in the form of various essays. Eugene’s manner of writing is simply exceptional, transforming a scientific undertaking, into a wonderful narrative which depicts the relationship he shared with a group of baboons as their observer. His writing is both captivating and shows his intensive study of the group’s behaviour. In the fifth chapter, “Addiction and Depression”, his manner of writing changes somewhat compared to other chapters, and he essentially makes the language of the chapter equally more complex and vulnerable. It is this change of writing that is so interesting and which potentially reveals more about his own addiction to morphine than in his previous chapters.

Unlike in his other chapters, he focuses more on the human component of addiction and how it comes about. A substance used for the purpose of intoxication, or as Marais referred to them as, “poisons”, were essentially used for the, “purpose of creating euphoria”, in order to alleviate the user of mental or emotional pain (101).  Marais continues to comment on the use of ‘poisons’ by humans and their leading to addiction, throughout the entirety of the chapter, paying very little attention to the chacma which he is studying. When he does speak of the chacma however, his language is fused with fascination behind the baboons’ ability to get addicted to certain fruit, alcohol and tobacco. What he does presume is that the chacma is in, “some degree liable to the same quality of suffering which is undoubtedly an attribute of human consciousness”, as chacma bound in captivity had more of a disposition to form addictions and addictive habits (Marais 113).

While it would make sense to contrast and compare the behaviour of chacma and their addiction forming capabilities to those of humans and their addiction, Marais takes it further and discusses Hesperian Depression within humans and within the chacma. It is within this comparison of depression among the two species where Marais uses the analogy of the progression of the day to explain how depression is, “tidal in character” (Marais 114). He beautifully explains depression as being at it’s, “lowest ebb” at sunrise or during early morning and it being influence being strongest, it’s, “highest flow”, being at the setting of the sun (Marais 114). Marais, only as he could, draws beautifully on the progression of the day, of light turning into dark, to evaluate and describe the manner in which depression works. It is difficult to read this chapter and not feel Marais’ association with the chacma; he did, after all, suffer from depression and an addiction to morphine and that struggle which he endured, is displayed by his subjects and is given form by his writing.

While his theories may not have been perfect, his writing of this chapter is absolutely wonderful. The chapter is quite dense and complex holding many ideas and thoughts, which requires the reader to unpack the chapter through multiple rereading’s of the chapter and book itself. Exceptionally well written, engaging and representing various new ideas about the chacma, the chapter, “Addiction and Depression”, is one of eleven chapters to truly captivate the reader.

     

Work cited

Marais, Eugene and Robert Ardrey. “Addiction and Depression.” The Soul of the Ape. Ed. Eugene Marais. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 2006. 101-120. Print.