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Books by Cheryl Stobie
Bisexuality has been explored in increasing numbers of South African novels published since 1994.... more Bisexuality has been explored in increasing numbers of South African novels published since 1994. In a society previously dominated by an either/or mindset, what does this development signify? The innovative Somewhere in the Double Rainbow answers this question by examining a number of these novels in depth, looking at South African literature, the nation, and citizenship in a new light.
Papers by Cheryl Stobie
Chapter 10: Conclusion: Bisexuality in the South African Imaginary 366 Bibliography 378 My superv... more Chapter 10: Conclusion: Bisexuality in the South African Imaginary 366 Bibliography 378 My supervisor, Professor Johan Jacobs, has been instrumental in my completing this thesis. I thank him for having spurred my thinking with salient questions, for his expertise and for his editorial acumen. I gratefully acknowledge the support of the
The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction
Two speculative novels, which were recently published in South Africa, are analyzed in this artic... more Two speculative novels, which were recently published in South Africa, are analyzed in this article as they reveal forms of precarity in various African settings, and they imaginatively portray forms of conviviality to offset or transcend political and social oppression. The Book of Malachi by T.C. Farren was published in 2019 and The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu in 2018. These works are particularly pertinent to current public debate and outrage in South Africa about recurring outbreaks of xenophobia and the prevalence of gender-based violence, rape and femicide. I begin by providing a brief overview of the novels before expanding on my theoretical perspective, combining African and Western work. In the heart of the paper, I examine each of my primary texts in turn, arguing that, in these examples of speculative fiction, precarity and conviviality are presented as intimately connected concepts that simultaneously highlight the effects of oppression, violence and trauma...
Uncommon Wealths in Postcolonial Fiction, 2018
The chapter “The Black Diamond and the Queen BEE: Representations of Wealth, Corruption and Women... more The chapter “The Black Diamond and the Queen BEE: Representations of Wealth, Corruption and Women’s Sexuality in Two South African Novels” is a literary analysis that compares and contrasts two recent novels dealing with wealth, corruption, gender, and sexuality: Zakes Mda’s Black Diamond (2009) and Lebogang Matseke’s debut novel, Queen B.E.E. (2015). Little critical attention has been devoted to either of these texts, and they have not previously been drawn into conversation with each other. The chapter contrasts the two texts with regard to the gendered point of view assumed by the authors, revealing differing representations of human bodies and choice of diction, as well as attitudes to freedom and social justice.
Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa
Journal of Postcolonial Writing
Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa
English Academy Review, 2018
In Panashe Chigumadzi’s debut novel, Sweet Medicine (2015. Johannesburg: BlackBird Books), the yo... more In Panashe Chigumadzi’s debut novel, Sweet Medicine (2015. Johannesburg: BlackBird Books), the young black protagonist overcomes the drawbacks associated with her ‘Strong Rural Background’ by acquiring a mission-school education and a degree in Economics, leading to a job in Harare, Zimbabwe. However, as the country is in the throes of its 2008 economic crisis, Tsitsi’s education and employment fail to provide for her economic needs. This failure prompts her to compromise her Catholic values by using her charms to seduce an older, married man. When she fears his attention has strayed elsewhere, she turns to a traditional healer for charms to overcome her rival and ensure the devotion of her ‘blesser’ by means of pregnancy. Sweet Medicine dramatizes issues including opportunities offered in an urban context, conflicts between traditional and modern modes of behaviour, and somatic and emotional options open to women in a patriarchal, corrupt social system. This article first contextualizes the setting of the novel and provides a literary critical background. It then proceeds to analyse the text in terms of five characteristic features of Zimbabwean literature: representations of the city, social criticism, doubles, potent spiritual mediumship and creative spaces for women authors. I draw upon theories of postcolonial feminism, including Chikwenye Ogunyemi’s analysis of the power of black women as authors and characters in Juju Fission (2007. New York: Peter Lang). I explore possible readings of the novel as cautionary tale, an exercise in cynicism, or a call for equality and social justice, concluding that the most apposite interpretation of the text pays attention to the effects of the limitation of choice when suffering from poverty, particularly for women in urban settings.
South African Journal of Philosophy, 2018
This article foregrounds the intersection between queer Islamic masculinity and Islamic female id... more This article foregrounds the intersection between queer Islamic masculinity and Islamic female identity in Rayda Jacobs’s Confessions of a Gambler, and shows how these two identity categories are subjugated in light of dominant expressions of Islamic masculinity. The novel’s action takes place within a traditional Cape Muslim community and employs, among other literary strategies, the main protagonist’s vice of gambling and her son’s sexuality as tools to illuminate the interstitial and perilous social space occupied by women and gay men in South African Muslim society. The research dissects the poignant picture that Jacobs paints of marginal identities as they exist at the intersection of religion, gender identity and sexual identity, and ultimately exhibits that homophobia and gender inequalities are not necessarily intrinsic to Islam. The article adopts a cultural studies style literary analysis. In light of this theoretical approach, this article evaluates Jacobs’s novel in a manner that goes beyond its literariness and shows how it also acts as a form of social commentary. This article also shows how the novel problematises hegemonic representations of gender and sexuality within Islam by giving voice to women and gay men: identity categories which remain largely voiceless in the dominant representations of Islam.
Can Themba’s iconic story, “The Suit” (1963), tells of a devastating punishment visited upon an a... more Can Themba’s iconic story, “The Suit” (1963), tells of a devastating punishment visited upon an adulterous wife, Matilda, by her husband, Philemon. This article begins by examining some implications of Themba’s story and touching on subsequent adaptations that have re-imagined this haunting tale from various perspectives. I then move on to consider two stories by Makhosazana Xaba (2013) which add significant elements to the original fable. “Behind ‘The Suit’” is written in epistolary form by Philemon’s dying male lover to his daughter, thus queering the narrative. “‘The Suit’ Continued: The Other Side” is recounted in first-person narration by Matilda, after her suicide. It delineates the affair between Matilda and another woman, and their plan to have a baby, adding further queer temporalities. Citing theorists of queer and bisexual temporalities, I provide a close reading of the effects Xaba creates in her re-fashionings of Themba’s Ur-text. I argue that both stories critique hetero-patriarchy; they queer marriage, procreation, Sophiatown, black communities and the South African nation; and they contribute meaningfully to postcolonial queer writing and reading.
Overview of the contents of the special issue of Current Writing 29 (2): “Facing the Future: Writ... more Overview of the contents of the special issue of Current Writing 29 (2): “Facing the Future: Writing Transformation and Social Justice”.
This article analyses the effects created by Lauren Beukes through her use of the cyberpunk genre... more This article analyses the effects created by Lauren Beukes through her use of the cyberpunk genre in her first novel, Moxyland (2008). Because of its challenge to conventional ideas of embodiment and identity formation, together with its counter-cultural punk ethos, cyberpunk would seem to offer the prospect of transgressive versions of gender and sexuality. However, various critics note that instead of realising this potential, cyberpunk endorses heterosexual masculinity in its narratives, while repressing or marginalising the feminine and homosexual relations. In Moxyland, Beukes actively engages with the conventions of cyberpunk in order to subvert such reactionary reiterations and the conventional gendered power struc-tures that underpin them. Through techniques such as exaggeration, splitting and exploring contrasted forms of masculinity she criticises the cyberpunk genre's conventional treatment of gender, as well as the patriarchal power relations it promotes. Beukes also refutes cyberpunk's tendency to restrict the transgressive potential of its empowered female characters by portraying them in terms of sexualised femininity. She challenges essentialist notions of gender as she depicts women characters in active relation to technology. Her version of the female cyborg conveys a potentially transgressive blending of technology and biology, dramatised outside the conventional lens of the masculine gaze.
Bisexuality has been explored in increasing numbers of South African novels published since 1994.... more Bisexuality has been explored in increasing numbers of South African novels published since 1994. In a society previously dominated by an either/or mindset, what does this development signify? The innovative Somewhere in the Double Rainbow answers this question by examining a number of these novels in depth, looking at South African literature, the nation, and citizenship in a new light.
Chapter 10: Conclusion: Bisexuality in the South African Imaginary 366 Bibliography 378 My superv... more Chapter 10: Conclusion: Bisexuality in the South African Imaginary 366 Bibliography 378 My supervisor, Professor Johan Jacobs, has been instrumental in my completing this thesis. I thank him for having spurred my thinking with salient questions, for his expertise and for his editorial acumen. I gratefully acknowledge the support of the
The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction
Two speculative novels, which were recently published in South Africa, are analyzed in this artic... more Two speculative novels, which were recently published in South Africa, are analyzed in this article as they reveal forms of precarity in various African settings, and they imaginatively portray forms of conviviality to offset or transcend political and social oppression. The Book of Malachi by T.C. Farren was published in 2019 and The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu in 2018. These works are particularly pertinent to current public debate and outrage in South Africa about recurring outbreaks of xenophobia and the prevalence of gender-based violence, rape and femicide. I begin by providing a brief overview of the novels before expanding on my theoretical perspective, combining African and Western work. In the heart of the paper, I examine each of my primary texts in turn, arguing that, in these examples of speculative fiction, precarity and conviviality are presented as intimately connected concepts that simultaneously highlight the effects of oppression, violence and trauma...
Uncommon Wealths in Postcolonial Fiction, 2018
The chapter “The Black Diamond and the Queen BEE: Representations of Wealth, Corruption and Women... more The chapter “The Black Diamond and the Queen BEE: Representations of Wealth, Corruption and Women’s Sexuality in Two South African Novels” is a literary analysis that compares and contrasts two recent novels dealing with wealth, corruption, gender, and sexuality: Zakes Mda’s Black Diamond (2009) and Lebogang Matseke’s debut novel, Queen B.E.E. (2015). Little critical attention has been devoted to either of these texts, and they have not previously been drawn into conversation with each other. The chapter contrasts the two texts with regard to the gendered point of view assumed by the authors, revealing differing representations of human bodies and choice of diction, as well as attitudes to freedom and social justice.
Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa
Journal of Postcolonial Writing
Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa
English Academy Review, 2018
In Panashe Chigumadzi’s debut novel, Sweet Medicine (2015. Johannesburg: BlackBird Books), the yo... more In Panashe Chigumadzi’s debut novel, Sweet Medicine (2015. Johannesburg: BlackBird Books), the young black protagonist overcomes the drawbacks associated with her ‘Strong Rural Background’ by acquiring a mission-school education and a degree in Economics, leading to a job in Harare, Zimbabwe. However, as the country is in the throes of its 2008 economic crisis, Tsitsi’s education and employment fail to provide for her economic needs. This failure prompts her to compromise her Catholic values by using her charms to seduce an older, married man. When she fears his attention has strayed elsewhere, she turns to a traditional healer for charms to overcome her rival and ensure the devotion of her ‘blesser’ by means of pregnancy. Sweet Medicine dramatizes issues including opportunities offered in an urban context, conflicts between traditional and modern modes of behaviour, and somatic and emotional options open to women in a patriarchal, corrupt social system. This article first contextualizes the setting of the novel and provides a literary critical background. It then proceeds to analyse the text in terms of five characteristic features of Zimbabwean literature: representations of the city, social criticism, doubles, potent spiritual mediumship and creative spaces for women authors. I draw upon theories of postcolonial feminism, including Chikwenye Ogunyemi’s analysis of the power of black women as authors and characters in Juju Fission (2007. New York: Peter Lang). I explore possible readings of the novel as cautionary tale, an exercise in cynicism, or a call for equality and social justice, concluding that the most apposite interpretation of the text pays attention to the effects of the limitation of choice when suffering from poverty, particularly for women in urban settings.
South African Journal of Philosophy, 2018
This article foregrounds the intersection between queer Islamic masculinity and Islamic female id... more This article foregrounds the intersection between queer Islamic masculinity and Islamic female identity in Rayda Jacobs’s Confessions of a Gambler, and shows how these two identity categories are subjugated in light of dominant expressions of Islamic masculinity. The novel’s action takes place within a traditional Cape Muslim community and employs, among other literary strategies, the main protagonist’s vice of gambling and her son’s sexuality as tools to illuminate the interstitial and perilous social space occupied by women and gay men in South African Muslim society. The research dissects the poignant picture that Jacobs paints of marginal identities as they exist at the intersection of religion, gender identity and sexual identity, and ultimately exhibits that homophobia and gender inequalities are not necessarily intrinsic to Islam. The article adopts a cultural studies style literary analysis. In light of this theoretical approach, this article evaluates Jacobs’s novel in a manner that goes beyond its literariness and shows how it also acts as a form of social commentary. This article also shows how the novel problematises hegemonic representations of gender and sexuality within Islam by giving voice to women and gay men: identity categories which remain largely voiceless in the dominant representations of Islam.
Can Themba’s iconic story, “The Suit” (1963), tells of a devastating punishment visited upon an a... more Can Themba’s iconic story, “The Suit” (1963), tells of a devastating punishment visited upon an adulterous wife, Matilda, by her husband, Philemon. This article begins by examining some implications of Themba’s story and touching on subsequent adaptations that have re-imagined this haunting tale from various perspectives. I then move on to consider two stories by Makhosazana Xaba (2013) which add significant elements to the original fable. “Behind ‘The Suit’” is written in epistolary form by Philemon’s dying male lover to his daughter, thus queering the narrative. “‘The Suit’ Continued: The Other Side” is recounted in first-person narration by Matilda, after her suicide. It delineates the affair between Matilda and another woman, and their plan to have a baby, adding further queer temporalities. Citing theorists of queer and bisexual temporalities, I provide a close reading of the effects Xaba creates in her re-fashionings of Themba’s Ur-text. I argue that both stories critique hetero-patriarchy; they queer marriage, procreation, Sophiatown, black communities and the South African nation; and they contribute meaningfully to postcolonial queer writing and reading.
Overview of the contents of the special issue of Current Writing 29 (2): “Facing the Future: Writ... more Overview of the contents of the special issue of Current Writing 29 (2): “Facing the Future: Writing Transformation and Social Justice”.
This article analyses the effects created by Lauren Beukes through her use of the cyberpunk genre... more This article analyses the effects created by Lauren Beukes through her use of the cyberpunk genre in her first novel, Moxyland (2008). Because of its challenge to conventional ideas of embodiment and identity formation, together with its counter-cultural punk ethos, cyberpunk would seem to offer the prospect of transgressive versions of gender and sexuality. However, various critics note that instead of realising this potential, cyberpunk endorses heterosexual masculinity in its narratives, while repressing or marginalising the feminine and homosexual relations. In Moxyland, Beukes actively engages with the conventions of cyberpunk in order to subvert such reactionary reiterations and the conventional gendered power struc-tures that underpin them. Through techniques such as exaggeration, splitting and exploring contrasted forms of masculinity she criticises the cyberpunk genre's conventional treatment of gender, as well as the patriarchal power relations it promotes. Beukes also refutes cyberpunk's tendency to restrict the transgressive potential of its empowered female characters by portraying them in terms of sexualised femininity. She challenges essentialist notions of gender as she depicts women characters in active relation to technology. Her version of the female cyborg conveys a potentially transgressive blending of technology and biology, dramatised outside the conventional lens of the masculine gaze.
The film Proteus (2003), directed by John Greyson and Jack Lewis, fictionalises the true story of... more The film Proteus (2003), directed by John Greyson and Jack Lewis, fictionalises the true story of the relationship between two prisoners – a white Dutchman and a Khoekhoe man – who were executed for sodomy on Robben Island in 1735. The film employs anachronistic features to reveal and critique cross-historical instances of cataloguing, language usage, homophobia and racism within the South African context. The textual analysis in this article uses the notion of bisexual temporalities, as articulated by Chung-Hao Ku. The argument made here is that the directors portray and celebrate interracial same-sex sexual behaviour and intimacy, but employ a relatively Eurocentric lens that endorses gay identity formation and inadvertently confirms prejudices about homosexuality being alien to African people (contrary to anthropological evidence). However, the film, true to its allegorical symbolism, allows for varied interpretations, and this article explores the significance of the portrayal of the Khoekhoe character’s sexuality as an allusive example of indigenous queerness.
Readings in Sexualities from Africa, eds. Rachel Spronk and Thomas Hendriks, 2020
Bisexuality, Religion and Spirituality: Critical Perspectives, 1st Edition, eds. Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip and Alex Toft. , 2020
In 2017, acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak publicly acknowledged her bisexuality. While some r... more In 2017, acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak publicly acknowledged her bisexuality. While some reactions were positive, many were traditionalist, homophobic and misogynistic. This chapter investigates Shafak’s complex liminal identity as, in her own words, ‘woman, writer, exile, bisexual, agnostic, leftist, mystic, a non-Western in the West’, in dialogue with an analysis of The Forty Rules of Love (2010). The novel interweaves the thirteenth-century narrative of Sufi intimate companions Rumi and Shams (both married men) with a contemporary, transformative, heterosexual love story. The parallels between the two temporalities, and the presentation of the Rumi/Shams love story in the form of a novel-within-a-novel appropriately called Sweet Blasphemy, allow for the theoretical lens of bisexuality to be deployed. Both bisexuality and Sufism can be conceptualised as unorthodox, emancipatory, fluid and inherently oppositional to the institutionalised, rigid and binarist. This chapter examines the novel’s timely depiction of Sufism as anti-fundamentalist, spiritually fulfilling and accepting of varied forms of love. Similarly, bisexuality is revealed to be a fluid, anti-binarist sexuality, although it is not idealised in the novel, and social pressures are shown as problematic for ‘bisexual’ characters. The chapter argues that the novel successfully visualises a queer-friendly, mystical, emancipatory version of Islam that caters for the socially marginalised.
Queer in Africa: LGBTQI Identities, Citizenship, and Activism, 2018
The film Karmen Geï sets the familiar Carmen story in contemporary Senegal and depicts Karmen as ... more The film Karmen Geï sets the familiar Carmen story in contemporary Senegal and depicts Karmen as having same- and different-gender attractions and relationships. The queer bisexual reading employed in this chapter highlights the possibility, and the fatal hazards, of free female sexual expression outside socially mandated limits and reveals lacunae in queer readings that ignore bisexuality. The representation of Karmen’s bisexual behaviour implicitly criticises narrow conceptions of sexuality, including homophobia, monosexism, and possessive monogamy. Examining the film through the lens of critical bisexual theorisation reveals that this is a queer African Carmen with brio, sexual assurance, and political purpose.
Uncommon Wealths in Postcolonial Fiction, 2018
The chapter “The Black Diamond and the Queen BEE: Representations of Wealth, Corruption and Women... more The chapter “The Black Diamond and the Queen BEE: Representations of Wealth, Corruption and Women’s Sexuality in Two South African Novels” is a literary analysis that compares and contrasts two recent novels dealing with wealth, corruption, gender, and sexuality: Zakes Mda’s Black Diamond (2009) and Lebogang Matseke’s debut novel, Queen B.E.E. (2015). Little critical attention has been devoted to either of these texts, and they have not previously been drawn into conversation with each other. The chapter contrasts the two texts with regard to the gendered point of view assumed by the authors, revealing differing representations of human bodies and choice of diction, as well as attitudes to freedom and social justice.
San Representation: Politics, Practice and Possibilities, 2015
This article compares and contrasts two folktales. The first is the traditional ballad, 'The twa ... more This article compares and contrasts two folktales. The first is the traditional ballad, 'The twa sisters', collected by Francis J. Child in the 19th century. The Canadian folksinger Loreena McKennitt compiled a variant of this, called 'The bonny swans'. Many of these ballads feature a musical instrument composed of the bones of the slain sister, which sings the name of her killer, who is her heartless sister. The second folktale is 'The singing reed', a story collected in Namibia by Sigrid Schmidt. This tale recounts the story of a girl who dies due to the cruelty of her peers. Some of her blood splashes onto a reed, which sings to her brothers. No claim is made for any direct connection between the two tales; however, transcultural traffic entailed the exchange of various stories, both in written and oral form. Using a feminist perspective, the effects created in both of the folktales are analysed, including the representations of family life, the use of oral features and music, the references to magic talismans and the yearning to transcend the boundaries of death. The consonances and pertinent differences between the two narratives, highlighting their significance socially, politically and spiritually, are explored.
Literature for Our Times: Postcolonial Studies in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Bill Ashcroft, Ranjini Mendis, Julie McGonegal and Arun Mukherjee, 2012
SA Lit Beyond 2000, ed. Michael Chapman and Margaret Lenta, 2011
The Changing Face of African Literature/Les nouveaux Visages de la litterature africaine, ed. Bernard de Meyer and Neil ten Kortenaar, 2009
Religion and Spirituality in a Postcolonial Context, ed. Duncan Brown, 2009
Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, 2nd edition, ed. Robyn Ochs., 2009
Postcolonialism: South/African Perspectives, ed. Michael Chapman, 2008
Urban Generations: Post-Colonial Cities, ed. David Richards, Taoufik Agoumy and Taieb Belghazi, 2005