‘There might be no bottom to it’: unplumbed depths and uncanny emotions in Damon Galgut’s The Quarry

Abstract

This article offers an affective reading of Damon Galgut’s first post-apartheid novel, The Quarry (1995). Adopting a socio-historical approach to emotions, as understood by Bede Scott, Sara Ahmed, and Ato Quayson, the discussion focuses on three emotions central to Galgut’s novel: anger, guilt, and shame. In the first part of the discussion, I concentrate on anger, showing that this dysphoric emotion is governed by the mechanisms of displacement and projection. The second part of the article explores guilt and shame, as experienced by the novel’s nameless protagonist. While the logic of the narrative points to guilt as the main emotion experienced by the protagonist, a deeper analysis reveals that shame is the real trigger of his actions. Shame results from the protagonist’s failed attempts to integrate himself into the patriarchal and racist town community at the expense of suppressing his sexual identity and political convictions. This emotional reaction, stemming from the inner conflict experienced by the main protagonist, sheds light on the position of Galgut as a writer who rejects the racist and homophobic culture of the apartheid period and, at the same time, knows that – as a white South African – he is implicated in its legacy.