To Be [White] or Not to Be [White]: A Postcolonial Study of Transformation of Conflict into Peace and Violence in Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot

For forty six years, Apartheid, classified as a Crime against Humanity, was the fuel to the fire of segregation, hate, discrimination, violence and crimes in South Africa. It was one of the main violations of the state of peace. Literature that appeared during and after this period is a valuable source for the analysis of causes that led to such atrocity. One of these causes that often goes unnoticed in the intersection of literary studies and peace studies is the factor of Stereotypes which emerges from the in-depth study of race and power. The role that stereotypes play in the dynamics of conflicts that occur between individuals and institutions in a literary work can be extremely useful in the analysis of conflicts that exist around us. This article aims to use an interdisciplinary approach with the primary objective of highlighting the stereotypes described in the play Blood Knot (1961) written by Athol Fugard and analyzing them according to Edward Said and Homi Bhabha’s postcolonial theories. As a secondary objective, it aims to highlight the cases of conflict between these stereotypes in individual and institutional cases. The conflicts, as described by Johan Galtung, either transform into violence or get resolved into the state of peace in each literary work. The interrelation between the stereotypes and the conflicts remain central to the analysis of such violent literature in this article. In hindsight, the types of violence prevailing in the social settings of this literary piece as well as the state of peace are taken into consideration for a holistic analysis.

Keywords:

Peace , Conflict , Violence , Apartheid , Stereotypes , Postcolonial