Imprinting the self: mountain presencing, place and identity in The rock alphabet by Henrietta Rose-Innes

Abstract

In South Africa, with its colonial past and ongoing postcolonial issues, questions of “belonging” are fraught with difficulties. There are many contested spaces, both rural and urban. For wilderness areas, such as mountain ranges, postcolonial ecocriticism is especially relevant. In the Cedarberg Mountains in the Cape, for example, questions of “belonging” involve questions which go back to “deep time” (geologic time, calculated by measuring the age of rocks). Rock paintings give evidence of early habitation of that area, and can form the basis of claims for land amongst groups such as the contemporary descendants of the KhoeSan people. In her novel, The rock alphabet, Henrietta Rose-Innes takes on these issues by presenting a complex matrix of events involving two children, apparently descended from the San, who are found in a cave in the mountain in the 1980s. Her narrative raises questions involving “place” and “belonging”, such as “Who does this place belong to?” and the converse question, “Who belongs in this place?” Also, “What claim do people with deep roots in the past have and what control do they have over the way their past is constructed?” Throughout Rose-Innes’ narrative, the presence of the mountain can be felt, both in the mind and in the body as the events move between the city and the mountain. In addition to questions of representation, the mountain plays a powerful role in determining the way people interact with each other and with the construction of their sense of self.

Keywords:

• place
• mountain
• presencing
• belonging
• postcolonial ecocriticism
• identity