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Kritika Kultura

Abstract

This paper discusses the structure of Imraan Coovadia’s Tales of the Metric System: A Novel. Drawing inspiration from Karina Szczurek’s review of Coovadia’s book, the article explores the kaleidoscopic view of the South African state that emerges across the storylines in the novel. Critically, this paper connects Szczurek’s terminology to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of the rhizome. The multiple perspectives that intersect over the course of Coovadia’s text foreground the polyvalent bonds connecting characters across space and time. These links form a web between characters which closely resembles Deleuze and Guattari’s description of the rhizome in A Thousand Plateaus. In doing so, the rhizomatic structure of this novel presents a version of history that runs contrary to state history by focusing on individuals’ stories and the ties that bind them as a family, a community, and a nation. Mapping the range of connections surrounding one of the central characters, Professor Neil Hunter, I argue these bonds help to highlight how apartheid violence is experienced plurally, across multiple people, spaces, and generations; in the case of Hunter, I also show how his tragic murder impacts people born after his death. Advancing forward in time, this article goes on to show how the links between characters can also help readers map challenges pertaining to reconciliation and nation-building in the post-apartheid South African state. The interplay between time, memory, and a non-linear storyline in this novel raise important questions about the past and how or why this history is recalled.

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