Drawing the Line - Toward an Aesthetics of Transitional Justice

Drawing the Line examines the ways in which cultural, political, and legal lines are imagined, drawn, crossed, erased, and redrawn in post-apartheid South Africa--through literary texts, artworks, and other forms of cultural production. Under the rubric of a philosophy of the limit, and with reference to a range of signifying acts and events, this book asks what it takes to recalibrate a sociopolitical scene, shifting perceptions of what counts and what matters, of what can be seen and heard, of what can be valued or regarded as meaningful.
The book thus argues for an aesthetics of transitional justice and makes an appeal for a postapartheid aesthetic inquiry, as opposed to simply a political or a legal one. Each chapter brings a South African artwork, text, speech, building, or social encounter into conversation with debates in critical theory and continental philosophy, asking: What challenge do these South African acts of signification and resignification pose to current literary-philosophical debates?

List of contents

About the author

Carrol Clarkson is Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Cape Town.

Summary

Makes a contribution to contemporary aesthetic discourses through conversations on the borderlines of philosophy and literature, literature and the law, law and politics, politics and justice, justice and art in post -apartheid South Africa.

Product details

• Authors: Carrol Clarkson
• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 11.11.2013
• EAN: 9780823254156
• ISBN: 978-0-8232-5415-6
• No. of pages: 224
• Series: Just Ideas (FUP); Just Ideas; Just Ideas
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; Social sciences, law, business > Law > International law, foreign law