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Justine Cadet, Simmons College
Born and raised in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. For undergraduate school, I attended St. Anselm College, where I majored in English and took a semester abroad in Rome to study Art and Architecture. After graduation, I joined a Non-profit organization to volunteer in Swaziland for two years, where I taught high school and worked with other volunteers to open an orphanage for 100 children due to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Upon my return, I taught high school for three years in Fall River, MA, where I currently reside.
The Role of South African Protest Fiction: A Post-Colonial/New Historicist Approach to Njabulo Ndebele's Death of a Son
Njabulo S. Ndebele’s 1987 short story Death of a Son focuses upon the changing dynamics of one married couple after their son is accidentally killed by the Afrikaner police force in a South African township. The couple’s relationship and the internal voice of the female protagonist reflect the grander historical and social context from which and into which the story was published. Writers and artists creating within an oppressive societal structure cannot distance their work from that environment, simply because the work of art, like the creator, is a product of that milieu. Most elements of society are intricately connected with one another, especially the individuals who find solidarity in lamenting their similar predicaments. The couple’s relationship takes a dominant role in identifying and embodying the power struggles and subjugations that occur within this type of oppression. The female protagonist exemplifies Michael Foucault’s theory from Discipline and Power that power exists on varying levels and from all directions, but one must embrace this capacity for power, along with their fears, in order to utilize it. This story’s accuracy of emotions along with its presentation of the personal and political power dynamics acts as a formidable historical source.
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