The Perversity of Gratitude: An Apartheid Education

Apartheid, ironically, provided Grant Farred with the optimal conditions for thinking. He describes South Africas apartheid regime as an intellectual force that, Made thinking apartheid, more than anything else, an absolute necessity. The Perversity of Gratitude is a provocative book in which Farred reflects on an upbringing resisting apartheid. Although he is still inclined to struggle viscerally against apartheid, he acknowledges, It is me. Unsentimental about his education, Farreds critique recognizes the impact of four exceptional teachersall engaging pedagogical figures who cultivated a great sense of possibility in how thinking could be learned through a disenfranchised South African education. The Perversity of Gratitude brings to bear the work of influential philosophers such as Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida. The book tackles broad philosophical conceptstransgression, withdrawal, and the dialectic. This leads to the creation of a new concept, the diaspora-in-place, which Farred explains, is having left a place before one physically removes oneself from this place. Farreds apartheid education in South Africa instilled in him a lifelong commitment to learning thinking. And for that I am grateful, Farred writes in The Perversity of Gratitude . His autopoiesis is sure to provoke and inspire readers. Contents Preface: Thinking/Denke Acknowledgments Gratitude: In Three Steps Concepts 1 Thinking/Denke Gratitude Perversity The Perversity of Gratitude: In Three Iterations Against Commonsense Chapter I: A Name: Livingstone High School. Richard Owen Dudley: 1924–2009 Interlude I: Education for Barbarism Concepts 2 Transgression There Is No Such Thing as a Constitutive Outside Chapter II: Morgan MacArthur: English Teacher Nonpareil Interlude II: Postapartheid Education, Unconcealed Concepts 3 Thinking a Debt The Diaspora-in-Place The Unconscious of Gratitude The Dialectic, In Black and White Interlude III: In-Gratitude Concepts 4 Withdrawal Chapter III: Stanley Gordon Moysey Ridge: Thespian from Natal Concepts 5 The Dialectic Memory Apartheid Responsibility/Irresponsibility Chapter IV: Richard Moore Rive: Tiananmen Square Day Notes Index