Abject Body of History

Across the disciplines and ages, human body has been approached as complex, political, mysterious. Caught in an intricate socio-cultural fabric, it acquires projects multiple patterns of symbolism, seized by literature to convey deep realities perplexing themes. The become be recognised eloquent metaphor for postcolonial writers, effectively staging resistance colonial practices discourse. It is from insides such a that strange voice worm emerges recounts its memories Nadine Gordimer’s short story, “Tape Measure,” Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black Other Stories (2007). Drawing on insights trauma studies, this paper focuses show how use addresses problematics memory reconstruction limitations South African context. unnatural articulates history abject “body” marked “filthy” crimes, proposing legacy racism “excremental” practice stains reality. analogy finds purchase Julia Kristeva’s theorisation “abject” “lack cleanliness” “monstrous”; history, thus, dark deformed, are hard “expel.”