"Op die grens van skaarste en oorvloed": Faith Mbata en ander huisbediendes in stadsromans van Lettie Viljoen/Ingrid Winterbach

"On the borderline between scarcity and plenitude": Faith Mbatha and other domestic servants in the city novels of Lettie Viljoen/Ingrid Winterbach

My focus in this article is on the question how and to what effect black female domestic servants are represented by Lettie Viljoen/Ingrid Winterbach in her city novels 'Landskap met vroue en slang' (1996) and 'Die boek van toeval en toeverlaat' (2006). Faith and Hazel prove to be pivotal characters in the efforts of the main characters to achieve a balance between opposites and to come into contact with their personal pasts and that of the country. My hypothesis - in the context of a larger project - is that a diachronic analysis of city texts such as these in which domestic servants figure, open up new possibilities to explore the discourses and ideologies of different phases of the country's history.