Erik Doxtader

Erik Doxtader is Professor of Rhetoric at the University of South Carolina and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. A former Social Science Research Council– ...

With Faith in the Works of Words
The Beginnings of Reconciliation in South Africa, 1985–1995

Erik Doxtader

WINNER: The Rhetoric Society of America Outstanding Book of the Year, 2010

With Faith in the Works of Words is the first book to look behind the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and examine reconciliation's larger and fundamental role in the transition from apartheid to nonracial democracy. In doing so, it finds that there have been many beginnings of reconciliation in South Africa. Based on documents that have received little public attention, including controversial texts from the religious community and fascinating transcripts from South Africa's constitutional negotiations, the book reveals how reconciliation was used to energize the struggle against apartheid and the ways in which it underwrote the negotiated revolution, including the development of a constitution whose very promise was pegged to the willingness of South Africans to pursue the work of "reconciliation and reconstruction." Faith in the Works of Words challenges many common assumptions about the discourse and dynamics of reconciliation in South Africa. An important history of reconciliation’s rhetorical power, this book shows how reconciliation shaped the process of South African nation-building long before the TRC took to the stage and captured the world's imagination.

CONTENTS
- abbreviations, vii
- preface(s), ix
- introduction: the (rhetorical) question of reconciliation in south africa, 1; dis)placing reconciliation’s history, 5; inaugurating words, 11; arguing about an exceptional past, 18
- a footnote (with which to reconcile)? 25
-1. the struggle of beginning words: reconciliation in a state of emergency, 35; making the "potential" of apartheid's word, 43; by grace or mass action: (re)defining the faith and work of reconciliation, 57; between the third force and the third way: discerning reconciliation’s kairos, 73
- 2. a middle course between extremes: reconciliation as an art of inventing "talk about talk," 85; different unities in difference: the (non)reconciling terms of afrikaner and anc nationalism, 92; making a climate out of a violent situation, 110; trading history for words (about words), 126
- 3. reconciling the sovereign's discourse: constituting the "sufficient consensus" of a revolution, 140; codesa's sovereign question, 144; a difficult season of climate changes, 157; a sufficiently consensual (speech) act of constitution, 175
- 4. the opposing questions of beginning: how will the word(s) of reconciliation "deal with the past"? 199; achieving reconciliation, 203; the standing of history (making) in transition, 217; constituting a vocabulary to deal with the past, 227
- 5. the sacrifices of deliberation: making reconciliation's law 242; for a model in the middle: speaking to(ward) the act of reconciliation, 247; composing reconciliation's law of publicity, 256; reconciling the difficult sacrifice of a "gift", 268
epilogue: the potential of an exceptional beginning, 283; reconciling (the) works of words, 285; making a present for the future's past, 293
- notes, 299
- bibliography, 348
- index, 364

Reviews

"This is simply the best available record and analysis of the debate leading to the adoption of the South African TRC and its implementation. No one interested in the South African transition from apartheid to the beginning of democracy can afford not to read it."
– Charles Villa-Vicencio

"...timely and important history of the rhetorical power of reconciliation...." - CHOICE

"With Faith in the Work of Words serves the important role of establishing the significance of language in the miracle that is South Africa. Yet, more importantly, Doxtader takes his readers on a complex and comprehensive journey that leads toward an understanding of the multifaceted nature of reconciliation in the history of South Africans, black and white. Doxtader's work will prove to be a useful tool beyond rhetorical studies, with valuable insight for scholars of political science, theology, and organizational studies." - Maria A. Dixon, Southern Methodist University

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