From solidarity with the people to solidarity with the ‘company’: State capture and Karen Jayes’ dystopian novel ,For the Mercy of Water' (2012)

Abstract

For the Mercy of Water sheds light on an uncanny conjunction between the rape of women, the rape of a country and the rape of the truth. It relates a story about the vulnerability and resilience of women in a phallogocentric world. It deals with the phenomenon of ‘state capture’, the exploitation and abuse of state institutions and resources for the sake of private profit. Last but not least, it examines the relation of journalism and novel writing and flies the flag of truth-telling as a form of bearing witness and ‘remembering’ in a post-factual and increasingly totalitarian environment.