Despite the official end of apartheid, contemporary South African literature continues to highlight the persistence of historical trauma and systemic racial inequality in the country. This paper examines Damon Galgut’s The Promise (2021) to address how narrative form can be used to critique these unresolved social divisions. Analysing the novel through Sarah Nuttall’s (2009) concept of entanglement and Judith Butler’s (2004, 2009) reflections on vulnerability, the study argues that Galgut’s fluid and hyper-omniscient narration functions as an ethical and ontological strategy for exposing the impossibility of individual isolation in a society shaped by historical violence, racial inequality, and unresolved trauma. The article explores how spaces such as the Swart family farm and recurring funeral scenes become symbolic sites of forced entanglement, where personal grief intersects with collective histories of dispossession and privilege. Particular attention is devoted to the relationship between Amor and Salome, whose lives embody the asymmetrical but unavoidable connections between white guilt and Black dispossession in post-apartheid South Africa. Through Amor’s gradual recognition of ethical responsibility and Salome’s enduring silence, the novel interrogates the limits of restitution and reconciliation. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that The Promise presents vulnerability not solely as a marker of trauma, but also as the basis for mutual recognition and fragile hope. The expected findings imply that true reconciliation remains incomplete without an acknowledgement of shared vulnerability. This paper offers new insights into how post-apartheid literature envisions ethical accountability amidst structural paralysis. 

Keywords: vulnerability; entanglement; reconciliation; The Promise; South African literature

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