A History of South African LiteratureThis book is a critical study of South African literature, from colonial and pre-colonial times onwards. Christopher Heywood discusses selected poems, plays and prose works in five literary traditions: Khoisan, Nguni-Sotho, Afrikaans, English, and Indian. The discussion includes over 100 authors and selected works, including poets from Mqhayi, Marais and Campbell to Butler, Serote and Krog, theatre writers from Boniface and Black to Fugard and Mda, and fiction writers from Schreiner and Plaatje to Bessie Head and the Nobel prizewinners Gordimer and Coetzee. The literature is explored in the setting of crises leading to the formation of modern South Africa, notably the rise and fall of the Emperor Shaka's Zulu kingdom, the Colenso crisis, industrialisation, the colonial and post-colonial wars of 1899, 1914, and 1939, and the dissolution of apartheid society. In Heywood's study, South African literature emerges as among the great literatures of the modern world. |
Contents
Introduction communities and rites of passage | 1 |
Poetry before Sharpeville singing protest writing | 29 |
Theatre before Fugard | 72 |
Prose classics Schreiner to Mofolo | 87 |
Fiction of resistance and protest Bosman to Mphahlele | 111 |
Poetry after Sharpeville | 145 |
Theatre Fugard to Mda | 178 |
Novels and stones after 1960 | 194 |
Notes | 236 |
Glossary | 250 |
| 254 | |
| 287 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Afrikaner ancient Anglo-Afrikaner apartheid appears autobiography Bessie Head Bleek Bosman British brother Bushman Cape Coloured Cape Town celebrated century character child civilisation Coetzee Colenso collection colonial Coloured creole creolisation cultural dead death decades Dhlomo Drum early Egyptian emerged English essay experience farm father female fiction Fugard girl Gordimer Gordimer's Guma Guy Butler Hamite ideology hero invokes Johannesburg Karoo Khoi Khoisan Krige Kunene lady land landscapes language later Leipoldt Lewis Nkosi liberation literary lives Mandela Marais modern Mofolo Mphahlele Mqhayi murder narrative Nat Nakasa Natal Nguni Nguni-Sotho notably novel oral Peter Abrahams Plaatje play Plomer poem poet poetry police present prose protest reappears recognised resistance rite of passage satirical satirised Schreiner Serote Shaka Sharpeville slave social Song Sophiatown South African literature South African society Soweto story style tale theatre theme tradition Trek Uys Krige violence written wrote Xhosa Zulu