IJLLL 2025 Vol.11(3): 130-134
DOI: 10.18178/IJLLL.2025.11.3.586
Marginalized “Aphasic”-On the Ekphrasis in Damon Galgut’s “Promise”
Wenwen Liu and Lifu Jiang*
College of Foreign Languages, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China
Email: 2660628967@qq.com (W.W.L.); lfjiang@nuaa.edu.cn (L.F.J.)
*Corresponding author
Manuscript received January 7, 2025; accepted March 7, 2025; May 23, 2025.
Abstract—In the novel “Promise”, Galgut uses modern ekphrasis to depict the compressed living space of black South Africans through the visualization of scenes and characters, and to depict the forgotten image of “the aphasia” by placing the contradiction between “establishment promises” and “abandonment of promises”. It reflects the tragedy of black women in gender, class, and racial dimensions in South Africa during the transition period, and also expresses the author’s criticism of South Africa’s apartheid rule and reflection on governance after democratic transformation.
Keywords—Damon Galgut, “Promise”, Ekphrasis, Aphasic
Cite: Wenwen Liu and Lifu Jiang, "Marginalized “Aphasic”-On the Ekphrasis in Damon Galgut’s “Promise”"
International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 130-134, 2025.
Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).