Chris Marnewick
(South Africa, 1948) kicked up a lot of dust in South Africa with his debut Shepherds & Butchers (2008) about the death penalty. Marnewick, a lawyer by profession and a lecturer in law, ingeniously succeeds in interweaving fact and fiction. He bases his novel on real murders and executions in 1987. The death penalty was abolished in South Africa at the close of the 1980s, but many of Marnewick's compatriots plead for its reintroduction in order to curb the violence in te country. With his detailed and factual description of the executions and their emotional consequences Marnewick shows his readers the moral objections attached to the death penalty. In addition, Shepherds & Butchers has led to a discussion on the boundaries between fact and fiction, which are often completely vague in the book.
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Archive available for: Chris Marnewick
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The Real Thing 1: Morality
Ethicists, writers and artists talked to each other about their quest for truth and genuineness. A pure tone, a clear line, the rules of the game: What do these concepts mean to them? The Real Thing was a full evening's, three-part programme hosted by Michaël Zeeman.
Part 1: morality. If people lose their moral bearings, can the law keep them on the straight and narrow path? But what if the law itself is bad? Writer and ethicist Marjolijn Februari read a column specially written fot this programme: 'Who keeps guard over morality?' Then the German writer Juli Zeh, the South African writer and criminal lawyer Chris Marnewick and Marjolijn Februari talked about morality and the profession of letters.
