Rediscovery of the Ordinary: Essays on South African Literature and CultureNjabulo S. Ndebele's essays on South African literature and culture initially appeared in various publications in the 1980s. They encompass a period of trauma, defiance, and change - the decade of the collapse of apartheid and the challenge of reconstructing a future. In 1991, the essays were collected under the current title of Rediscovery of the Ordinary: Essays on South African Literature and Culture. Here, this collection is reprinted without revision, together with an interview provoked by Albie Sachs' paper Preparing Ourselves for Freedom. That it is possible to republish the essays without revision so many years after their first appearance is a tribute to Ndebele's prescience. The issues that he raises and the questions that he poses remain key to a people who, after apartheid, have started to rediscover the complex ordinariness of living in a civil society. |
Contents
Turkish Tales and Some Thoughts on South African Fiction | 1 |
Some New Writings in South Africa | 31 |
Redefining Relevance | 55 |
Copyright | |
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activity Albie Sachs apartheid Ariel Dorfman articulate artistic attempt attitude become civilisation complex consciousness context Couzens creative critical culture dialectic discussion domination dramatic Duduza economic effect emerge English language example experience fact fiction Firstly fundamental future going Guy Butler human ideological imagination institutions intellectual interest issues Johannesburg Kemal's kind labour Lewis Nkosi liberal Lionel Abrahams literary manipulative mass mbaqanga Michael Vaughan Miriam Tlali Mongane Serote moral native Ndebele oppressor organisations pamphlet peasant perception Plaatje's political popular powerlessness practice problem protest literature question radical Ravan Press reader reading realisation reality recognise relationship relevant result role sense situation social Sol Plaatje South Africa South African literature South African oppression South African Writers specific spectacle spectacular Staffrider stories structural struggle symbols task thinking Tlali township tradition understanding urban validity woman worker poets written word