Search

This article analyses two novels set in dystopic South African futures, namely Trencherman (2008) by Eben Venter, and Moxyland (2008) by Lauren Beukes, a discussion framed by the following theoretical issues. The first question is the extent to which these novels might be considered “future histories” in terms articulated by Michael Green (1994: 15), defined as speculative novels which give serious and detailed attention to the conditions of a particular time, as would be the case in a historical novel. A related question is the extent to which these novels project into the future current societal conditions in South Africa, with regard to the historical drivers of contemporary society. I discuss these questions with reference to the notions of dystopia and “critical dystopia” (Stobie 2012: 369), the latter denoting a dystopia containing hopeful elements. A subsidiary question is the differing ways in which both writers use the grotesque to symbolise different forms of oppressive state power. Drawing on t...

This interview explores the role of environmentalism – specifically as it relates to meat and agriculture – in the literature of South African writer Eben Venter. As discussed in the interview, Venter’s novel Trencherman, through its envisioning of a post-apocalyptic South Africa, serves as an especially productive text for examining the interplay of colonialism and ecological violence.

Publish ahead of print: JAN 2017, Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists, Inc. PURPOSE:: To evaluate the combined effects of inherent ocular aberrations and induced aberrations with a multifocal soft contact lens (MFCL) after 15 days of lens wear in presbyopic participants and their influence on visual performance at distance and near under high and low contrast conditions. METHODS:: Forty presbyopic participants (mean age, 48.7±3.4) presenting a mean addition of 1.53±0.58 D were fitted with Biofinity Multifocal (CooperVision) and included in the study. Measurements comprised distance and near monocular high (100%) and low contrast (10%) logMAR visual acuity (VA). Ocular aberrations were obtained with Hartmann–Shack aberrometer (IRX3, Imagine Eyes) and analyzed for 2 mm and maximum round natural pupil. RESULTS:: Distance VA was significantly higher in dominant eye, whereas near VA was significantly better in the non-dominant eye (P < 0.05 in all conditions). For a 2-mm pupil in the dominant eye fitted with MFCL, spherical-like aberration significantly increased (P=0.027) so as higher-order aberrations (HOA) (P=0.002). A significant increase was also observed in spherical-like aberrations (P=0.001), coma-like aberrations (P=0.006) and HOA (P=0.004) in non-dominant eye. For the maximum round natural pupil size, a significant decrease in vertical coma was observed (P=0.018) in dominant eye, whereas a significant increase in spherical-like (P < 0.001) and coma-like aberrations (P=0.007) was observed in non-dominant eye. A negative significant correlation was found between vertical coma and high contrast VA (Rho=−0.405, P=0.011) in dominant eye; whereas in non-dominant eye, a significant correlation was found between induced secondary astigmatism and distance VA under high (Rho=0.556, P < 0.001) and low contrast (Rho=0.448, P=0.005). CONCLUSIONS:: On-eye visual performance of MFSCL is dependent on the high-order aberrations induced by dominant and non-dominant design coupled with the wearerʼs inherent aberrations., Supported by projects PTDC/SAU-BEB/098392/2008 and PTDC/SAUBEB/098391/2008 and the Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2013 funded by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through the European Social Fund., info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

This article undertakes an analysis of the narrative temporalities and of the narratives of temporality, specifically those of apocalypse or end-times and of living-on respectively, to be found in two recent South African novels, Eben Venter's Trencherman (2008) and David Medalie's The Shadow Follows (2006). Against Venter's hyperbolic narrative of catastrophe, which also turns out to be a critique of the residual elements of the erstwhile apartheid era, I posit that Medalie's litotic and patchwork narrative offers a more appropriate narrative of the slow transformation of the post-apartheid South African polity. I use Venter's and Medalie's oddly complementary novels as a template for exploring an emergent sense of a non-teleological ‘minor narrative’ of liberation in a time ‘after postcoloniality’.

Barely twenty years into the new democracy, post-Apartheid South Africa can still be described as a country of extremes that is subject to continuous transition, and as a society characterized by the tensions inherent in a multifarious and fragmented community. Texts which chart South Africa’s socio-political landscape, but are simultaneously a transgression to the private life, and presented as exemplars in this article, are Eben Venter’s novel Horrelpoot (2006) (‘Trencherman’), Diane Victor’s etch series ‘Disasters of peace’ (2002 and an ongoing project), and S. J. Naude’s short story collection Alfabet van die voels (2011) (‘Alphabet of the birds’). Diane Victor’s series of etches are each based on true events and are, therefore, the frame through which I view the fictional literary texts. In Horrelpoot, Venter undertakes a journey to the dark heart of Africa and a direct confrontation with fear takes place in the novel. Naude’s stories are imbedded in the current socio-political problems of a ...