A History of South African Literature

This book is a critical study of South African literature, from colonial and pre-colonial times onwards.

Christopher Heywood (Author)

9780521153782, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 24 June 2010

314 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Heywood delivers a most readable, even penetrating summary of South African writing, from ancient Khoisan folktales …' South African Historical Journal

This 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.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Chronology
List of abbreviations
Literary map of South Africa
1. Introduction: communities and rites of passage
Part I. Towards Sharpeville: 2. Poetry before Sharpeville: singing, protest, writing
3. Theatre before Fugard
4. Prose classics: Schreiner to Mofolo
5. Fiction of resistance and protest: Bosman to Mphahlele
Part II. Transformation: 6. Poetry after Sharpeville
7. Theatre: Fugard to Mda
8. Novels and stories after 1960
Notes
Glossary
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]