Language, education, and transformation in Bianca Marais’s Hum If You Don’t Know the Words
In this article, I analyse Bianca Marais’s debut novel Hum If You Don’t Know the Words (2017). I consider first its relation to the historical events of the Soweto Uprising of 1976, and then examine its methods of composition. The issue precipitating the Soweto Uprising, when hundreds of black scho...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Afrikaans |
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Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2022-09-01
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| Series: | Tydskrif vir Letterkunde |
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| Online Access: | https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/10942 |
| _version_ | 1818049090380890112 |
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| author | Gail Fincham |
| author_facet | Gail Fincham |
| author_sort | Gail Fincham |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
In this article, I analyse Bianca Marais’s debut novel Hum If You Don’t Know the Words (2017). I consider first its relation to the historical events of the Soweto Uprising of 1976, and then examine its methods of composition. The issue precipitating the Soweto Uprising, when hundreds of black schoolchildren were gunned down by the police, was the refusal of blacks in Soweto to be taught in Afrikaans rather than in their home languages. Their revolt was both tragic and triumphant: tragic because of the sacrifice of young lives, triumphant because it marked Sowetans’ new power to insist on their ownership of language. In the spirit of this linguistic autonomy, Marais celebrates the power of language to create intercultural and intergenerational encounters, scripting dialogue which marries social diversity with linguistic elasticity. In this marriage her writing is strongly consonant with the work of the Russian linguist and philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, whose text Art and Answerability examines the ethics of writing and helps the reader to piece together the agency of the implied author. Searching for the perspectives of the implied author reveals Marais’s political activism as well as her mastery of dialogue. Her novel belongs to the tradition created by writers in the 1970s and 1980s—when apartheid was in full force—to anticipate a post-apartheid world. Marais’s novel illustrates a political, cultural, and linguistic reinvention through its manipulation of narrative.
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| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T10:32:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-45fa76348e304f1287230c03d45e66df |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0041-476X 2309-9070 |
| language | Afrikaans |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T10:32:03Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Tydskrif vir Letterkunde |
| spelling | doaj.art-45fa76348e304f1287230c03d45e66df2022-12-22T01:52:32ZafrTydskrif vir Letterkunde AssociationTydskrif vir Letterkunde0041-476X2309-90702022-09-0159210.17159/tl.v59i2.10942Language, education, and transformation in Bianca Marais’s Hum If You Don’t Know the WordsGail Fincham0University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa In this article, I analyse Bianca Marais’s debut novel Hum If You Don’t Know the Words (2017). I consider first its relation to the historical events of the Soweto Uprising of 1976, and then examine its methods of composition. The issue precipitating the Soweto Uprising, when hundreds of black schoolchildren were gunned down by the police, was the refusal of blacks in Soweto to be taught in Afrikaans rather than in their home languages. Their revolt was both tragic and triumphant: tragic because of the sacrifice of young lives, triumphant because it marked Sowetans’ new power to insist on their ownership of language. In the spirit of this linguistic autonomy, Marais celebrates the power of language to create intercultural and intergenerational encounters, scripting dialogue which marries social diversity with linguistic elasticity. In this marriage her writing is strongly consonant with the work of the Russian linguist and philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, whose text Art and Answerability examines the ethics of writing and helps the reader to piece together the agency of the implied author. Searching for the perspectives of the implied author reveals Marais’s political activism as well as her mastery of dialogue. Her novel belongs to the tradition created by writers in the 1970s and 1980s—when apartheid was in full force—to anticipate a post-apartheid world. Marais’s novel illustrates a political, cultural, and linguistic reinvention through its manipulation of narrative. https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/10942Soweto Uprising 1976language ownershipBakhtin’s Art and Answerabilityimplied authornarrative manipulation anticipating post-apartheid world |
| spellingShingle | Gail Fincham Language, education, and transformation in Bianca Marais’s Hum If You Don’t Know the Words Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Soweto Uprising 1976 language ownership Bakhtin’s Art and Answerability implied author narrative manipulation anticipating post-apartheid world |
| title | Language, education, and transformation in Bianca Marais’s Hum If You Don’t Know the Words |
| title_full | Language, education, and transformation in Bianca Marais’s Hum If You Don’t Know the Words |
| title_fullStr | Language, education, and transformation in Bianca Marais’s Hum If You Don’t Know the Words |
| title_full_unstemmed | Language, education, and transformation in Bianca Marais’s Hum If You Don’t Know the Words |
| title_short | Language, education, and transformation in Bianca Marais’s Hum If You Don’t Know the Words |
| title_sort | language education and transformation in bianca marais s hum if you don t know the words |
| topic | Soweto Uprising 1976 language ownership Bakhtin’s Art and Answerability implied author narrative manipulation anticipating post-apartheid world |
| url | https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/10942 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gailfincham languageeducationandtransformationinbiancamaraisshumifyoudontknowthewords |