Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
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'rile 1-c~cnrclicr-rese~cl~cd division was alig~icci by black women at tlie<br />
confcf-cnce wit11 another-that hetwecn acarlernics and activists. Academics<br />
\\;ere c11:11-gctf will1 assunling to .speak Sol-' aciivist wonren's groups withnut<br />
i]ucstioning the implications oi' t11c11. onn actions: their. doing so in<br />
inipenctrnhlc academic largon ... was felt by mnny delegates to he a<br />
delibcratcly cxcl~isionary tactic. With literal-y st~rdies \vhat is finally at issuc<br />
in c(>~iilicls slich as thcsc is \vhclher a negotiated. ratller tl-ian assunicd.<br />
rc!atio~~sl~ip 01' iiiterests bctwecn womcn can bc cstablisllcd. ]:or this to<br />
liappen. ccrtain recognitions lrave to bc reached by all sides in tllc Souill<br />
Ahic.in dcbate ovcr rcpreseiztalio~~ .... po\f:cr and privilege aftkct crll<br />
groupings (class. cillnic, reiigio~~s, age. etc.) and will constn~~tly need lo be<br />
ncgotiateil .... It also involvrs learning to 'listci~' to those wllo have been<br />
Otlicrcd (Daymond 1996:xxl).<br />
thc excite~ncnt of consciously being in arid of' liistory which, wliile it is<br />
dilficull arid fill1 ol'contradictions. is perhaps not available to members of<br />
Inore settled societies (Daymoiid 1996:xuiiit).<br />
tual progress enables the academic to look back over the legacy of the past and<br />
e 'imported condescension' of traditional South African English literary studies<br />
ond 1996:xix)". Desplte the difficulty of an<br />
open. syn~metrical dialogue between the country's women .... there are<br />
esautlples of dialogue at work in the polity and of its leading to a strategic<br />
cooperation betwecn wonler~ (Daynlond I996:xxiii: and sccMecr 1997).<br />
erial forlnations of social conditions<br />
r-edressive, soteriological 'challenge that academics like me pdCe is to shedt an enabling institution and medium of representation,<br />
htibii of power' Waymond 1996:xix). This is a habit cxel-cised througll, and sustain<br />
to the establishment of a democratic polity based on<br />
by, the medium of academic discoul-se:<br />
r.<br />
Jllc o\vncl'SIlip of knowiedge-in it.; sc\~cral aspects of represelltatioll~<br />
ill1el-J)rclation. commcnta~y and thcoly--is being contested ill all brancllcs of<br />
feminist aciivit). within tlic ~~nivcrsities and x~illlo~t. is now being illore<br />
e of social obligations, and enables academics to be seen to be recognising such<br />
ing them. Miriam Tlali's stories cornanunicate the stoical<br />
\\'idcly recognized, contest out ofwhich ncw practtces \\rill collie canllol, of wolnen's lives, and Head's biography becomes an exe?,Plum, a stolY with a<br />
ho\ve\'er. lake tile form of a simple polarizing oiwtlitc h{ack: illat would<br />
be to rc~loduce auld pcrpctLlatc the Self/Otller structures of apartlleid, In<br />
Soutll Africa. as, 1 think. in North America. active ent1.y of black \Yoillen<br />
into feminist politics first servcci to expose polaljty. hut $,ow it is diversity. a<br />
aders and instruct them in their democratic obligations.<br />
Tlali's stories are seen as both universally valid and<br />
Illore complex Sense of the shifting elt'ects of .difference' Illat is coming to<br />
the fore .... esseniiali~ln (on which apartlieid once thrived) can still be all<br />
a\vkward component of tllc protest against wllite Ilegemony (Dztynlond<br />
1996:xxii).<br />
Acadelnic discourse is located within an evolving relation between metropole a<br />
jt is a sad stoly about ]makeshift improvisations on tradition which. when scad<br />
re~~cxively. suggests tile writer's own sense of loss and isolation .... It is<br />
humor of the stoly. tlowing through the anger, mlhich gives it potency-a<br />
lrulnorcomi~~gf~om ordinary. daily life (Daymond 1996a:233,235).<br />
periphery, and the exchange of intellectual coinlnodities travelling back and forth ajo 'arduous process by wllicll Bessie Head' contributed to 'new workings of the<br />
co17id0rs of power ]illking South Africa11 universities to those in the metropole is see<br />
as evidence of reciprocal globalisation:<br />
special sensitivity to the stresses and col~tlicts faced by<br />
developing dynanlic between Lhe first and third worlds \will inevitably<br />
the centre-margln coniiguration of the past (Daymond 1996:xxxviii), ~ l ~ ~ hindsight ~ i , enables ~ ~ Daymond c (1995:565) to claim that racist legislation did not<br />
Tbday; in an era of reconstruction, the institution is interpreted as a point ofirlters<br />
ecumenical social obligations, and responsiveness to the general \vijl of the<br />
restructuring the university to meet the social and political needs ofa br<br />
community:<br />
date the Afi.ikanervictoly of 1948: 'And this being the early 1940~ neither side in the meeting<br />
"We-Tllem" is yet positioned by the weight of legislated racial difference (Da~mond<br />
rians report that legislated racial difference was embodied in<br />
the 1927 Imtnorality Act, the 1936 abolition of the old Cape<br />
c~lise and the application ofC1lapter IV of theNatives' Land and Trust Act. In the nineteenth<br />
\flork amidst extremcs of pt-omise anci disillusjnnmcnt: ehangcs arc<br />
sim~lltaneously htigc and piecemeal, sporadic .... As [lie legacy past is<br />
defined and contained. ancl as new sociopolitical obligations are fhrlTlulated<br />
in interaction with women just emerging froin oppression, [Iris 1~1oment offcrs<br />
the ~,.iti~l, inlluence tended to [larden the hierarchies of race rather than dissolve tllem,<br />
of Lugard's systetn of indirect rule which in turn dcvelopcd<br />
Natal. See Maylam's (1994) argument that m~lllicipal intl~!~