“The Guilt of Men”: Re-visioning the Virgin Birth in Thando Mgqolozana's Hear Me Alone

Abstract

In this article I trace traditional associations of the Virgin Birth as portrayed in myth, literature, contemporary scholarship by Marina Warner and Mary F Foskett, and recent cultural artefacts. I examine the notion of re-vision, a fresh treatment of a prior text with a feminist or postcolonialist purpose, as elaborated by Adrienne Rich and bell hooks. Using these concepts as applied to the South African situation, I critically analyse Thando Mgqolozana's Hear Me Alone as differing significantly from its biblical precursor, the Gospel of Luke. I pay particular attention to Mgqolozana's use of names, imagery, a gender-aware social manifesto, the treatment of spirituality and sexuality, the treatment of virginity and motherhood, and the trope of the thwarted love story.

Keywords:

• Virgin Birth
• re-vision
• Thando Mgqolozana
• spirituality
• sexuality
• gender