Daring to Speak Its Name: The Representation of a Lesbian Relationship in the Work of Rozena Maart

Abstract

This article explores the representation of a lesbian relationship in a contemporary South African short story. I take an intersectional approach to the reading of lesbianism and consider how the race, gender and the geographical location of the lesbian body restrict the relationship options that are open to lesbians in a society where heterosexual partnering constitutes the norm. By means of a close reading of ‘No Rosa, No District 6’ by Rozena Maart, I illustrate the heteronormative pressures that structure the daily choices that lesbians must make in their relationships with one another as well as the ways in which other characters make sense of these relationships. While the textual representations of heteronormativity, and lesbian defiance thereof, will be the focus of the article, my work is motivated by a desire to address the silencing that seems to characterize much of the scholarly engagement with South African works of fiction that depict lesbianism.