The ritualisation, the recurrence of ‘non-secular’ image and allusion, in summary, moves the novel fromwhatmight have been themore familiar expectations ofGordimer’s ﬁction: that is, the story of a white, middle-class family, once privileged by the enclosed world of apartheid but now exposed to black lawyers and a predominantly black prison environment. (Interestingly, race is not mentioned in the parents’ visits to the prison.) Hurled into their family drama together, Harald and Claudia develop different ways of speak-ing aboutwhat to themhad been unspeakable: to be the parents of amurderer. By repeating and so ritualising the painful past, they transform the brute experience into a spiritual journey, albeit a harrowing one. We may recall Kristeva, for whom “the powers of horror” that need to be trans-gressed are part of spiritual pursuits and their various rituals of puriﬁcation (1982: 17). Sites of horror and spiritual pollution are transgressed by being made visible and thus controllable through processes of ritualisation (1982: 17). Harald’s way of ritualising trauma is by sublimating it through his Catholic faith: “He has an inviolable privacy.He is praying” (Gordimer 1998: 27).Although a devout churchgoer, he is not a literalist believer in transcendental powers. Harald’s beliefs could be referred to as secular spiri-tuality, or weak theology: that is, he believes in the power of mindful awareness, “the experience of the divine for oneself [. . .] in contrast with the unthinking pre-digestion of ecclesiastic dogma” (Kourie 2009: 190). In free indirect speech, the narrator presents Harald’s unorthodox views on prayer:

doi:10.4324/9781315674254-22

Chapter

The ritualisation, the recurrence of ‘non-secular’ image and allusion, in summary, moves the novel fromwhatmight have been themore familiar expectations ofGordimer’s ﬁction: that is, the story of a white, middle-class family, once privileged by the enclosed world of apartheid but now exposed to black lawyers and a predominantly black prison environment. (Interestingly, race is not mentioned in the parents’ visits to the prison.) Hurled into their family drama together, Harald and Claudia develop different ways of speak-ing aboutwhat to themhad been unspeakable: to be the parents of amurderer. By repeating and so ritualising the painful past, they transform the brute experience into a spiritual journey, albeit a harrowing one. We may recall Kristeva, for whom “the powers of horror” that need to be trans-gressed are part of spiritual pursuits and their various rituals of puriﬁcation (1982: 17). Sites of horror and spiritual pollution are transgressed by being made visible and thus controllable through processes of ritualisation (1982: 17). Harald’s way of ritualising trauma is by sublimating it through his Catholic faith: “He has an inviolable privacy.He is praying” (Gordimer 1998: 27).Although a devout churchgoer, he is not a literalist believer in transcendental powers. Harald’s beliefs could be referred to as secular spiri-tuality, or weak theology: that is, he believes in the power of mindful awareness, “the experience of the divine for oneself [. . .] in contrast with the unthinking pre-digestion of ecclesiastic dogma” (Kourie 2009: 190). In free indirect speech, the narrator presents Harald’s unorthodox views on prayer:

Chapter

The ritualisation, the recurrence of ‘non-secular’ image and allusion, in summary, moves the novel fromwhatmight have been themore familiar expectations ofGordimer’s ﬁction: that is, the story of a white, middle-class family, once privileged by the enclosed world of apartheid but now exposed to black lawyers and a predominantly black prison environment. (Interestingly, race is not mentioned in the parents’ visits to the prison.) Hurled into their family drama together, Harald and Claudia develop different ways of speak-ing aboutwhat to themhad been unspeakable: to be the parents of amurderer. By repeating and so ritualising the painful past, they transform the brute experience into a spiritual journey, albeit a harrowing one. We may recall Kristeva, for whom “the powers of horror” that need to be trans-gressed are part of spiritual pursuits and their various rituals of puriﬁcation (1982: 17). Sites of horror and spiritual pollution are transgressed by being made visible and thus controllable through processes of ritualisation (1982: 17). Harald’s way of ritualising trauma is by sublimating it through his Catholic faith: “He has an inviolable privacy.He is praying” (Gordimer 1998: 27).Although a devout churchgoer, he is not a literalist believer in transcendental powers. Harald’s beliefs could be referred to as secular spiri-tuality, or weak theology: that is, he believes in the power of mindful awareness, “the experience of the divine for oneself [. . .] in contrast with the unthinking pre-digestion of ecclesiastic dogma” (Kourie 2009: 190). In free indirect speech, the narrator presents Harald’s unorthodox views on prayer:

ABSTRACT

The ritualisation, the recurrence of ‘non-secular’ image and allusion, in summary, moves the novel from what might have been the more familiar expectations of Gordimer’s ﬁction: that is, the story of a white, middle-class family, once privileged by the enclosed world of apartheid but now exposed to black lawyers and a predominantly black prison environment. (Interestingly, race is not mentioned in the parents’ visits to the prison.)

Hurled into their family drama together, Harald and Claudia develop different ways of speaking about what to them had been unspeakable: to be the parents of a murderer. By repeating and so ritualising the painful past, they transform the brute experience into a spiritual journey, albeit a harrowing one. We may recall Kristeva, for whom “the powers of horror” that need to be transgressed are part of spiritual pursuits and their various rituals of puriﬁcation (1982: 17). Sites of horror and spiritual pollution are transgressed by being made visible and thus controllable through processes of ritualisation (1982: 17).