In the Heart of the Country...

Text from the "bilingual" version of In the Heart of the Country (section 203), published by Ravan Press in South Africa, 1978.  This page seems to show especially poignantly how the "bilingualism" of this version of the text speaks to the particular language politics of (apartheid) South Africa.  While I do not want to claim that any one version of the novel is the "true" or "original" version, I do think that the different versions carry different nuances and even allow for different kinds of meaning-making from readers, especially given Coetzee's concern with language, anyway.