“There Are Other Kinds of Exile”: Exploring the Stance of Detachment in Damon Galgut’s 'The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs'

Abstract

The article is a critical analysis of Damon Galgut’s second novel 'The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs' in the context of the historical and political conditions of apartheid in the late 1980s. It is argued that the alienation and detachment of the novel’s narrator and protagonist, Patrick Winter, need not be perceived solely in terms of an affliction: his detachment can also be seen as a conscious stance which enables him to distance himself both from the racist values held by his grandparents and from the volatile and vacuous liberal humanism represented by his mother. Rather than interpret Patrick’s alienation solely as proof of his sexual and political marginalization, this article puts equal emphasis on the empowering dimension of his detachment, interpreting it as Galgut’s attempt to formulate a viable political stance in the times of the South African interregnum.