Resumo

STOBIE, Cheryl. Imagined Identity and Human Rights in the Post-pandemic World of Lauren Beukes's Afterland. JLS [online]. 2022, vol.38, n.1, pp.1-17. ISSN 1753-5387.  http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/1753-5387/10417.

The article concerns itself with representative readers' responses to Afterland by Lauren Beukes. In line with Beukes's reputation, the novel has received acclaim. However, other readers have noted lacunae and negative representations that can fruitfully be viewed from the perspective of a hermeneutics of suspicion, which allows for an analysis of the affective sensibility of a text, and a human rights framework, which emphasises all humans' right to equality and freedom from prejudice. The world of Afterland, featuring the aftermath of the death of most people with prostates, offers an opportunity for dramatically reconceptualised gender roles and behaviours, and the possibility for readers to experience the effects of transportation into a narrative and the alleviation of out-group anxiety. Such processes allow for prejudice reduction and an increase in empathy. Through a close reading of sections of the novel, and by focusing particularly on the instance of transgender, I note that the novel fails to figure transgender rights as human rights through its representations and lacunae. Other representations of gender, sexuality and, to some extent, race are also at variance with the need for increased vigilance about the rights of marginalised and at-risk individuals during a pandemic.

Palavras-chave : Lauren Beukes; hermeneutics of suspicion; human rights; Afterland; gender roles; transgender; pandemic.

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