مجلة إشكالات في اللغة و الأدب
Volume 14, Numéro 2, Pages 466-482
2025-06-02
Dystopia And Displacement: Exploring Trauma In Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People (1981)
Authors : Haddouche Hassina . Benmezal Farid .
Abstract
This article aims to establish a link between historical trauma and dystopian literature in Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People (1981) in the light of M. Keith Booker’s conception of “Defamiliarization” as well as the Deleuzoguattarian conception of “Deterritorialization”. It argues that the Deleuzoguattarian scholarship on dystopia offers new insights into contemporary dystopia by framing the Apartheid system as the historical trajectory of trauma, displacing trauma from the black to the white community. We argue that the link between dystopia and trauma lies in how dystopian narratives disrupt familiar social constructs to confront unsettling realities. By employing ‘Defamiliarization’, Gordimer’s novel destabilizes the reader’s perception of power dynamics, forcing as such a reexamination of social hierarchies. Through Deterritorialization, the dystopian narrative dismantles the boundaries imposed by Apartheid. Ultimately, this article demonstrates how Gordimer’s dystopian novel serves as a lens which sheds the light on enduring traumatic experiences rooted in South African history, revealing social scars left by an oppressive system.
Keywords
Dystopia ; Apartheid ; Trauma ; Defamiliarization ; Deterritorialization ; Disruption
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