Art and/as Anarchy: Portraying the artist during times of turmoil and war

Abstract

Two South African novels, Congo Song (Cloete [1943]1973) and Moxyland (Beukes 2008) comment on the central part played by artists and their work in the midst of a society on the brink of war. Both narratives are set in Africa; one portrays a close-knit white community in the Congo in 1939, facing the collapse of their colonial way of life, the other depicts the apocalyptic nature of a dystopian Cape Town around 2018, reflecting the global reality of environmental catastrophe, deadly epidemics and state and corporate tyranny. In both texts art and artists play pivotal roles within a group of characters, and their views of their work, the multiple manifestations of creative art and the relationship between their specific communities and what is regarded there as art, form an integral part of the narrative whole. This article focuses on how various textual strategies are exploited to reveal how the creative urge is linked with resistance against as well as support for destructive violence. It also discusses aspects of the novels that are structured to, on the one hand, endorse the quest for romantic aestheticism and, on the other hand, forecast the reign of cyberspace and genetically modified art. 2011 04 15. © JLS/TLW.