The Queer Celebratory in Ashraf Jamal's Love Themes for the Wilderness

Abstract

After South Africa's transition to democracy in 1994, and after the appearance of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution, which offers wideranging guarantees on grounds including race, gender and sexuality, a number of novels have appeared which explore sexuality and queer life on their own terms and from a perspective of interiority and sympathy, rather than employing them merely as tropes, or judgementally. There is a lag,
however, between the progressive frame of reference of the Bill of Rights and the pervasive social and textual stereotyping and negativity associated with dissident sexualities. For this reason I choose in this piece to highlight the celebratory mode, in line with Ato Quayson's suggestion: “[I]t seems to me that the habit of optimism is a necessary one, especially in the field of postcolonial studies, which in direct and indirect ways purports to be concerned with problems in real-life situations” (2000, 21). Emphasising the celebratory is particularly appropriate at this moment, as South Africa has recently become the first country in Africa to permit same-sex marriages, leading to heated debates about human rights, homophobia, religious precepts and a perceived threat to the institutions of marriage and
heterosexuality.

English in Africa Vol. 34 (2) 2007: pp. 5-18