The Lonely Void

Protagonists Trapped by Apartheid in Self-Exile and Isolation in Athol Fugard’s ‘Port Elizabeth’ Plays

Abstract

This article examines the interconnection between apartheid, exile, and isolation as reflected in the major characters of Athol Fugard’s ‘Port Elizabeth’ plays, also known as ‘The Family Plays’, because of their special focus on the family unit. It argues that Fugard’s dramatic vision consistently prescribes solidarity between white and coloured characters as an antidote to the alienation imposed by apartheid. Building on earlier scholarship (Rayner, 1976; Gray, 1982; Walder, 1984; Vandenbroucke, 1986; Colleran, 1988, 1995), the study treats apartheid as the root cause of the psychological exile and isolation that afflict Fugard’s protagonists in Hello and Goodbye (1965), The Blood Knot (1968), People Are Living There (1969), Boesman and Lena (1970), and A Lesson from Aloes (1981). Through close textual analysis informed by Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis, the article demonstrates how apartheid engenders conditions of estrangement across racial categories, producing a shared sense of the void.