'The One That Got Away': Zoë Wicomb in the Archives

This article examines the role of reading and readers in the work of Zoë Wicomb. It discusses the uses made of printed material such as archives, newspapers and letters in the body of work, and argues that Wicomb uses these documents to interrogate notions of originality, origins and stability. In Wicomb's work, printed texts are often being cut, or lost, or changed. This lack of trust in the fixed, original version of a text is a recurring theme in Wicomb's work, and the issues raised in her fiction are of interest to all users of South African archives, as well as to those interested in archival theory and practice.