South Africa, Scotland, and Displacement. Crisis in Zoë Wicomb’s The One That Got Away

The second collection of short stories by the South African writer Zoë Wicomb, The One That Got Away (2008), well epitomises the concept of crisis. The twelve short stories portray the complex nature of Scottish and South African cross-cultural relationships: both Scottish and South African characters are represented in their struggles to negotiate the notion of home and to overcome the colonial history between the two countries. My paper aims to analyse two short stories of the collection, “Nothing Like the Wind” and “In the Botanic Gardens”. Both describe the experience of utter alienation endured by South Africans when they are confronted with a Scottish setting. Wicomb’s extensive use of free indirect style aptly conveys the characters’ existential crisis, brought about by their dislocation in a foreign country—not only foreign, but one where characters can recognise traces of their colonial past.