“Sex in the Cango”: Representations of Sexual Union as a Means of Re-imagining Self, Other and Landscape in Anne Landsman's The Devil's Chimney

Abstract

This paper will explore the ways in which representations of sexual union in Anne Landsman's 1998 novel The Devil's Chimney allow for a more ethical re-imagining of the relationships between self, other and landscape. I will focus particularly on the acts of sexual congress between Beatrice Chapman – an Englishwoman forced into moving to the Oudtshoorn district by her husband's gambling debts – and Mr Jacobs, her Jewish neighbour, as well as the congress between her and two of the farm labourers, Nomsa and September. I will argue that the way in which Landsman portrays these acts results in a dissolution of the distinctions between self and other. In the portrayals of sexual union with which I will concern myself, lines between the self, other and landscape become blurred to the extent that they are indistinguishable. I will highlight aspects of self-identification such as race and gender, which become dissolute during these acts. Finally, I will explain how the inclusion of landscape in such representations allows for a more ethical, pre-reflective means of portraying landscape and relationships within landscape than exists within the conventions of the plaasroman.

Keywords:

• plaasroman
• conditional hospitality
• unconditional hospitality
• self
• other
• landscape

Notes

This article arises from research supervised by Prof. Cheryl Stobie as part of Stuart Thomas's MA degree in the School of Literary Studies, Media and Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus. The work has received financial support from the National Research Foundation.

That is, to recognise as already known.