Introduction: Reading Feeling/Apartheid’s Bitter Fruit

Abstract

Libin elaborates upon the premise that cultural and national identity in South Africa has undergone a radical transformation to supplant the violent political and social divisions created during the apartheid era (1948–1994), and that this transformation may be productively measured and evaluated through the lens of affect theory. Libin contextualizes his theoretical approach, distinguishing between two main streams of affect theory, and arguing for the efficacy of the approach practiced by theorists such as Sara Ahmed and Lauren Berlant. Libin justifies his choice through a close reading of Achmat Dangor’s novel, Bitter Fruit. Focusing on the theme of incestuous desire in Dangor’s novel, a theme almost entirely ignored by preceding critical analysis, Libin contends that the novel demonstrates a complex intermingling of historical trauma and sexual desire that foregrounds the unpredictable effects that may emerge when affective responses to the TRC are engaged.