The Archive, the Spectral, and Narrative Responsibility in Zoë Wicomb'sPlaying in the Light

Abstract

This article offers a close reading of Zoë Wicomb's 2006 novel, Playing in the Light, arguing that it continues a project, evident throughout Wicomb's oeuvre, of exploring the ethics of narrative in the context of the legacies of colonial discursive formations, and of testing the responsibilities of fiction in the particular historical circumstances of post-apartheid South Africa. The essay argues that Wicomb's novel points to possibilities for narrative agency that actively plays host to the narratives of others. Using Jacques Derrida's suggestion that a consideration of the virtual archive, that which has been suppressed from the official record, is crucial to the post-apartheid nation, the article explores the idea of the archive both as space of engagement and as metaphor to explore apartheid experience and the construction of race.

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