ABSTRACT
To orient away from the clichéd vision of the all-too-familiar themes/narratives, which are what the Russian literary critic Boris Uspensky inventfully terms “the norms of the text,” this chapter explores the unexplored black-on-black trope in Bessie Head’s fiction. It sets up a conversation about a very salient issue, a much-neglected aspect—but a disturbing theme in Southern African fiction, which is the psychologizing black-on-black prejudice. With the exploration of this trope, the all-too-familiar themes are no longer seen as the “be-all” and “end-all” of Head’s criticism; because it allows us to read Head’s fiction, never in quite exactly the same way with previous readings of her work, except with some significant lines of connection.
