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"The only truth I know is what I felt with my entire body": Traumatic Memory in Zulu Love Letter
- Research in African Literatures
- Indiana University Press
- Volume 43, Number 1, Spring 2012
- pp. 136-150
- 10.2979/reseafrilite.43.1.136
- Article
- Additional Information
Zulu Love Letter expands the repertoire of films often labeled "Truth and Reconciliation films" in its portrayal of Thandeka Khumalo, a political activist, journalist, and mother. Her painful journey recognizes the moral ambivalence of a victim who has to learn to forgive herself for a past for which she holds herself responsible. With its frequent temporal shifts, highly subjective point of view, and self-conscious narration, the film employs a "modernist" representational style that intends to represent the trauma of the past and its post-traumatic resonance in the present. Such a visual landscape, however, also challenges the audience's ability (and willingness) to engage with a character whose testimony already threatens their sense of moral order and human compassion. In this article, I examine the aesthetic and ethical challenges of rendering personal pain accessible to an audience often far removed from the experience of the victim.