(Post)apartheid conditions: psychoanalysis and social formation

Abstract

What are the psychical mechanisms that underlie a given social formation? (Post)apartheid Conditions investigates this question by exploring a series of psychosocial topics the body, space-identity, whiteness, racism and nostalgia - within a specific socio-historical context. The South African situation, one of both social transformation and historical stasis, provides the opportunity to explore how a number of psychoanalytic concepts - the uncanny, fantasy, melancholia, working through, retroaction function at a societal level, at turns impeding and facilitating political change. Drawing on material collected by the Apartheid Archive Project, and the writings of Sara Ahmed, Steve Biko, Judith Butler, Jacques Lacan and Slavojiek, this book is of interest both to a general psychosocial studies audience and to readers interested in the cultural history of South Africa.