The Haves and Have-nots in the Family: Intra-classism in Zoë Wicomb’s October

Abstract

Zoë Wicomb’s penultimate novel, October (2014), tells the story of fifty-two-year-old Mercia Murray, a woman who has lived in Scotland for twenty-five years. The novel mainly revolves around the concepts of homemaking, exile, return and (non)belonging. While in other Wicomb works the characters come from different families or backgrounds, most of October’s relationships are intra-familial, making class inequality the primary factor to distinguish the different characters. In this sense, Wicomb proves in October how the opportunities the characters are given throughout their lives can lead to almost opposite outcomes, even if they come from the same or a very similar background. Drawing on Bourdieu, Seekings and Wright’s theories on social class, this article aims to explore the classist attitudes displayed by the different characters, with particular focus on Mercia Murray. Postcolonial theorists such as Jacob Dlamini, Bhabha or Spivak – among others – will be used to support how Mercia’s classism contrasts the national preoccupation with race in post-Apartheid South Africa. Furthermore, it will be seen how class is an essential factor in the increase for upward mobility – a concept that has not been properly studied in postcolonial literature since it has been fundamentally focused on how race determines the individual position in society. Through the small sample of South African society Wicomb presents, this paper will focus on the concept of class, as it will also explore the inferiority complex and mimicry attitudes attached to less socio-economically developed individuals.