Jingwen Du,Huiqin Tu,Mingfeng Fan

Country of My Skull is an autobiographical novel by Antjie Krog that documents the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s efforts to heal social wounds and promote reconciliation after the end of apartheid. Through characters of different identities, Krog gives voice to multiple perspectives and vividly reconstructs the painful memories of South African history. This paper examines the transformation of the protagonist Antjie Samuel’s identity, exploring how she experiences identity fragmentation and gradually achieves self-awareness under the influence of the philosophy of Ubuntu. It also further analyzes how both Black and White communities reshape their collective identities in response to the social changes of post-apartheid South Africa.

Country of My Skull; Antjie Samuel; Identity Transformation; Antjie Krog

[1] Bhabha,H.K.(1994).The Location of Culture.London and New York:Routledge. [2] Boehmer,E.(1995).Colonial and Postcolonial Literature:Migrant Metaphors.Oxford:Oxford University Press. [3] Chew,D.(2012).Accounting for language:Narrative ethics and economic reparations in Antjie Krog’s Country of My Skull.Safundi:The Journal of South African and American Studies,13(1-2),91-114. [4] Krog,A.(2002).Country of My Skull.Johannesburg:Random House, [5] Shi,J.H.(2022).“A skeptical Afrikaner”:An exploration of J.M.Coetzee’s identity.Contemporary Foreign Literature,43(4),122-129. [6] Shutte,A.(2001).Ubuntu:An Ethic for the New South Africa.Cape Town:Cluster Publication. [7] Talib,I.S.(2002).The Language of Postcolonial Literatures:An Introduction.London and New York:Routledge. [8] Wallmach,K.(2002).“Seizing the surge of language by its soft,bare skull”:Simultaneous interpreting,the truth commission and Country of My Skull.Current Writing:Text and Reception in Southern Africa,14(2),64-82. [9] Yin,Q.P.(2016).Community:A keyword in critical theory.Foreign Literature,(2),70-79. [10] Zhang J.Y.(1999).Postcolonial Theory and Cultural Criticism.Beijing:Peking University Press. [11] Zhang,Q.(2024).Psychoanalysis,identity exploration and human liberation:Three-dimensional study of Fanon’s cultural criticism.Journal of Hubei University(Philosophy and Social Sciences),51(3),39-47.

点击下载PDF