Complicities explores the complicated-even contradictory-position of the intellectual who takes a stand against political policies and ideologies. Mark Sanders argues that intellectuals cannot avoid some degree of complicity in what they oppose, and that responsibility can only be achieved with their acknowledgment of this complicity. He examines the role of South African apartheid-era intellectuals by looking at the work of a number of key figures-both supporters and opponents-in English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa. Drawing on theorists including Derrida, Sartre, and Fanon, and paying particular attention to the linguistic intricacy of the literary and political texts considered, Sanders shows how complicity emerges as a problem for intellectuals across the ideological and social spectrum. He gives detailed analyses of widely divergent figures-Afrikaner nationalist poet N. P. van Wyk Louw, Drum writer Bloke Modisane, Xhosa novelist A. C. Jordan, Afrikaner dissident Breyten Breytenbach, and Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko. Opening with a discussion of colonial intellectuals Olive Schreiner and Sol T.
Plaatje, and concluding with a reading of post-apartheid feminist critiques of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he reveals how sexual difference joins with race to further complicate issues of collusion. Complicities sheds new light on the history and literature of twentieth-century South Africa as it weighs into debates about the role of the intellectual in public life.
Industry Reviews
"Philosophically informed and linguistically sophisticated, Complicities is an important contribution to the intellectual history of modern South Africa."--J.M. Coetzee "[Complicities] has been one of the most challenging and stimulating books I have read in the past year."--Yvette Hutchison, King Alfred's College, Winchester in the Leeds African Studies Bulletin No. 66 2004 "[C]reative... Complicities raises critically important ethical questions that all intellectuals must face and that are especially relevant and poignant in our troubled times."--Jackie Vieceli, Perspectives on Political Science "[A]n accessible and very subtle reflection on the responsibility of the intellectual in the face of oppression... [A] stimulating and deeply rewarding read."--Paul Muldoon, Australian Journal of Politics and History "[T]he richness of informed, detailed analysis on offer here deserves the close attention of anyone trying to understand the history of protest, collusion or submission by some of South Africa's most significant thinkers."--Dennis Walder, Journal of Southern African Studies "This combination of European and African philosophy and literature challenges the role and place of the intellectual and artist in society. South Africans have long seen complicity as contamination and resisted any association either with the word or people to whom it has been applicable. This book offers an alternative perspective whereby we can look at these discourses differently, with less anxiety. It has been one of the most challenging and stimulating books I have read in the past year."--Yvette Hutchison, African Studies Bulletin "[A] deeply satisfying book. The range and depth of research is assimilated into a style of writing that is neither tedious nor pompous, and the author shows himself in full command of his sources."--Rustum Kozain, H-Net (H-SAfrica) Mentioned in The Boston Globe in a short item about a conference. Also reviewed in Research in African Literatures and Postcolonial Studies. Listed in The Black Scholar, boundary 2, Africa Today and Journal of History of Ideas.
