Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

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( ~ ~I'IPI>I(, L S ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ / l ~ ~ ~ / h Tioo Women Critics and South Afiiciln English 1ite1,arji Stlln'les bliltou, and the South African piay\vright F1.W.D. Manson. Along wi will gradually gain ground (19 July 1948~). I with \vIioln she enjoyed a lifelolig friendship--\/an Hcyningen iigul-c i ~i lhc irni-ile~nentalion of the techriiqucs of practical critic is^^^ in So T:ilgIish iIepil~-iinents i r Ihc ~ 1940s anti 1050s'. As regards Van I-Teyningen's attitude to politics, hcr most consistent con was an opposition to totalitarianism of any fonn. Van ileyningeil was partict troubled by the support shown by members of the Afrikaans corn^^ Gel-many. Fiercely opposed to all forms of ideological and politic identified tvith the values of de~nocracy and individual freedom, and dev considerable !ilne and energy to their defence. 'i'liese commitments are su~nniarisetl in her. response to the enormons growth ofpro-Nazi ideas an in South Africa in the early 1940s. In 1941, she published a petition in the Cepe A whicli was signed by eighteen other colleagues at the !Jlliversity of Stcllenbosch. petition, ~vhich was also published in the Szl~duy Times, the Cr~pe Srrn and an independent thinker, Van Heyningen formulated her critical position in to Matthew Arnold, T.S. Eliot, Q.D. Leavis, and Denys Thompson, and whilst reeing with individual contributors, the assun~ptions of the Scrzlfiny remained an important critical touchstone. She owed a principal bt to F.R. Leavis (with whom she corresponded on a number of and reiterated his sense of cultural and intellectual decline, and his wards popular culture. Like Leavis, her efforts were principally directed training of a critical vanguard capable of appreciating and promoting Great d resisting cons~~lner culture. Van Hcyningen assigns a central function to nd interpretation of poetic works. Poetly, like all literature, is valued difficulty, and because of its transfortnative power. The reading of poetry wrillen in protest against 'the slavish imitation of foreign methods o of the utmost momerrt ... [flor poetry. partly because it dernaniis so much of warfare, blind prejudices and bitter intolerance' (1941a:5) amongst the Afrik speaking com~nunity. The signatories argued for the need to protect 'persotial free us, of thc whole man. not merely his brain. his emotions or his body. is perhaps the most valuable activity ofthe human spirit' (1 945: 16). and autonomy, and rejected excessive state intervention. it also gave an i~ to the role of education: Being a student nleans, in the first place. studying, acquiring knowledge. for tlie purpose of translating his knowledge into deeds later on in life. A student \vho does not study will be a man who does not know. and such al-1 ignorant person. is of course, tlie best subject of a totalitarian state (194 1a:5). is a difficult pursuit calling into play 'incessant movement and "vigilance" of the . brain and emotions' (I 945: 16). , ' and because it is concerned with the proble~n of '-of its affirmation, 'renewal, and definition in an ever-changing world-the 'is forced to go through the same pi-ocess, to reconsider, to renew, to re-affirm the lues thatwe live by' (1 945: 16). Van Heyningen's literary cl-iticism also reveals a pervasive concern with ividual ~norality and personal responsibility. For her, both life and art are subject to For Van Heyningen, the training in critical thinking is an important antidote operation of absolute moral laws: The artist has a prirnary 'duty of giving direction' against the propagandist tactics of Fascist ideologues. This commitment extended t 946a: 17), in the process disclosing the universal moral order in hislher work. She the post-war period when as a founder member of The Johannesburg Educatio League-an organisation established to combat government indoctrination by mea of pamphlets and letters-Van Heyningen resisted attempts by the Institute Christian-Nationalist Education to enforce religious and cultural instruction in schoo Notwithstanding her corn~nit~ne~it to active political involvement, she retained a faith the inevitable spread of liberal ideas. Responding to a demand by the University Cape Town's SRC in 1948 that a unilateral decision bemade on the question ofwheth or not Africans should be allowed to participate in the social and sporting life oft university, she criticises UCT for 'not lettling] sleeping dogs lie', arguing instead that what she regards as the modern tendency to blur distinctions between 'good' '. Macbeth himself, she argues, understands the lie of the witch's claim that ul, and foul is fair': That foul is not fair his soul knew in its unknown depths, and the kno~sledge wrecked liisncrve. and turned him into the insatiable bloody tyrant he became .... To Shakcspeal-e good and evil were not dead, nor can I think of any great writer who has not accepted the responsibility. explicitly (11- implicitly. of choosi~ig between them. and who has not made the affir~~iation of values his chiefriglit andf~~riction as all artist (1946a: 17)'. if nothing more is said on the question. non-Europeans will be accepted as Heyningen's nloral preoccupations lead her into difficulties when she attempts to eq~tals in those places that ire liberal enough not to mind, and the letter oftlic uate the work of an author whose values she feels compelled to reject. In a law will be carried out in the illiberal places. and that in this way liberal itfeas cussion of the novels of Heniy James, she criticises his implicit acceptance of moral' and 'dishonourable' (1946~: 16) behaviour, and sums up his achievement in For ;i siio1-t biogl-aphy of' Mi11 t~cyniugcn. sec [lie in[~-oduclion to the collcctiotl of essays cdited hy J.A. Bertoud and C.O. (;arcine1.(1969). For triore on Van Heyningen's Shakespeare criticism. see Johnsoti ( 1996: 159- 161 )
lhc fi!llowi~rg irnage bon-owed fi-oin H.G. Wells: 'the bcautifrl cathedral ITas be Iaboric-i-iisi?~ bi~ilt, and James has evcr so reverei~tly laid upon the alf;ir-a dead kitt ( 1046~: 17). What are. for her, flippant and perverse moral judgements, particular1 'ons is the elevation ofliterature above politics. Altliough never conceived ofas in any direct sense, Lcavisite English Studies was 12evertheless undei-stood as his later worl
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uilds and [it in turn] creates anot
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From that day on, Nd~ng'ur~ began t
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. - r - other words, used certain f
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nn Hooper tlie language, ~nesmerisi
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Song and dance as we have Teen are
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Glerzn Hooper sense, one that rende
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Glenn Hooper Armah, Ayi Kwei 1973.
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71e lise ~rnoa~~liii- I,crizgii~lge
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References I he Use o/ 1Vet.narllla
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Davicl Kazanlian deportat~on scheme
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David EiLzzcznjlaw Racial C;overrzn
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L)av~tl KCIZII~J~U~ Racial Cioverrz
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David Kusi~njian Spain's colonies i
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David Kczcilzanjicln calculably and
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YC'VLU 11Lllilr~/lurl and in Ann La
Page 37 and 38: David Kazanjian terrify~ng effect o
Page 39 and 40: JI~ivi (1 kiiztitz~za~z Raclal Gove
Page 41 and 42: Dovid Kcrzavrjzan Racial Governnzen
Page 43 and 44: David Kastrnjrnn white Americans ar
Page 45 and 46: Slanlo~i, I.,ucia C: 1993. 'Those W
Page 47 and 48: David Jol~nson De Misl, Race unrl N
Page 49 and 50: De Mzst, Race and Nation opposjlion
Page 51 and 52: De Mist, Race and Nutlon Whether th
Page 53: L ur-rerzt Irencis in the I'rodz~ct
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Page 60 and 61: lived modernity, and as complex and
Page 62 and 63: C'zirrent Turrzds in the Production
Page 64 and 65: urrent lrends in the Prodzdction of
Page 66 and 67: LI(IIEPZI ~reilus zn the Prodzlcllo
Page 68 and 69: Alex la Guma's Politics and Aesthet
Page 70 and 71: Alex In Gzlrna i Polltics and Aesth
Page 72 and 73: as L,a Gu~iia hirnself later realis
Page 74 and 75: Alex la Gums k Politics and Aesthet
Page 76 and 77: Alex la (Yurna 3 Polilics and Aesth
Page 78 and 79: Alex In Gumn 2 Politics and Aest la
Page 80 and 81: Ale\: la (I'11~zcr k Politics cr~z~
Page 82 and 83: Alex lil Gzlnla .? Politics and Aes
Page 84 and 85: apart from events, who do not maint
Page 86 and 87: Ales la C;zlma i Politics ~~ndilesf
Page 90 and 91: C'orlnne .sunr/~i~th X,vo wo~orrzen
Page 92 and 93: Corinne Sandwith Two Women Critics
Page 94 and 95: Tilo Women Critics and South Africa
Page 96: nces and Selected Bibliography hori
Page 99 and 100: I'F~CI N~~~I.S~I~I~IL Constr~lction
Page 101 and 102: coti-iplain. They have beer1 writtz
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Page 105 and 106: value is socially constructed and d
Page 107 and 108: C'onstuzrct~ons of Protest Poetqj u
Page 109 and 110: Priya Narisrntll~l Cowstrnctions of
Page 111 and 112: and public accountability. Althougl
Page 113 and 114: epresentative ~nullicultural tlnive
Page 115 and 116: .Yh~zne MU~LZPJ Acnder~~ic I.l.tchn
Page 117 and 118: Africa. This partially accounts for
Page 119: wolnen' has cxetnplary status (llay
Page 122 and 123: Maqagi. Sisi 1990. Who Theorises? C
Page 124 and 125: The L)~viikiA Africtrrl Stc~t avid
Page 126 and 127: T/7e Dividect African S id Hernson
Page 128 and 129: The Uzvlded Afrlcnn St vltl ITefnso
Page 130 and 131: ion. Johannesburg: SATRK. This does
Page 132 and 133: Writitig .Yoz~th IW~M Sole ican ide
Page 134 and 135: scrubbed away. Thus, Asvat's c Flam
Page 136 and 137: Book Reviews States of Eniergency i
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Arrived after you had returned honi
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postinodernism: . . . what is post-
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