Abstract
One of the main aspirations of the early post-apartheid period was the idea of homecoming, which involved hopes for restoring peace and rebuilding communities, restitution and healing. Thus, engagements with cultural archives and performances of memory have become an inherent part of communities’ struggles for repossessing land and homes. One of the iconic sites of such performances has become District Six with its history of forced removals and its former residents’ intense social and aesthetic preoccupations with different layers of the past. This essay focuses on two recent plays that reimagine home spaces through innovative strategies of remembering – Nadia Davids’ Cissie and Amy Jephta’s All Who Pass. By analysing the plays’ temporalities and reconfigurations of space through postmemorial practices, this essay explores their strategies of working with archives.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Forays into Contemporary South African Theatre |
Editors | Marc Maufort, Jessica Maufort |
Publisher | Brill |
Chapter | 15 |
Pages | 271-290 |
Number of pages | 20 |
ISBN (Print) | 9789004414457 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 10-Oct-2019 |