Asset Details
Do you wish to reserve the book?
Who’s Passing Now? Mobility, Race, and Value in Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light
Hey, we have placed the reservation for you!
By the way, why not check out events that you can attend while you pick your title.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Looks like we were not able to place the reservation. Kindly try again later.
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
Who’s Passing Now? Mobility, Race, and Value in Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light
Do you wish to request the book?
Who’s Passing Now? Mobility, Race, and Value in Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light
Please be aware that the book you have requested cannot be checked out. If you would like to checkout this book, you can reserve another copy
We have requested the book for you!
Your request is successful and it will be processed during the Library working hours. Please check the status of your request in My Requests.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Looks like we were not able to place your request. Kindly try again later.
Journal Article
Who’s Passing Now? Mobility, Race, and Value in Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light
2022
Overview
This article offers a close reading of Zoë Wicomb’s novel Playing in the Light (2006), arguing that the novel’s representation of racial passing, linguistic performance, and value present a radical departure from standard accounts of racial passing. In Wicomb’s novel, individual advancement and social mobility are central aspirations both to the “play-whites” in the novel as well as to the postapartheid author-figure. In this way Wicomb’s novel highlights not only the economic underpinnings of racial identity, but the continuation of racial exclusion in postapartheid South Africa. The novel provides an especially perceptive representation of racial capitalism in which the linguistic dominance of English, the development of neoliberalism, and continued hyper-exploitation produce a context in which social mobility is still dependent on passing.
