South African Writing in Transition

by Rita Barnard, Andrew van der Vlies

Overview

Bringing together leading and emerging scholars, this book asks the question: how has contemporary South African literature grappled with ideas of time and history during the political transition away from apartheid?

Reading the work of major South African writers such as J.M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer and Ivan Vladislavic as well as contemporary crime fiction, South African Writing in Transition explores how concerns about time and temporality have shaped literary form across the country's literary culture. Establishing new connections between leading literary voices and lesser known works, the book explores themes of truth and reconciliation, disappointment and betrayal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350178809
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/20/2020
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Rita Barnard is Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, USA and Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Her publications include Apartheid and Beyond: South African Writers and the Politics of Place (2006) and, as editor, The Cambridge Companion to Nelson Mandela (2014).

Andrew van der Vlies is Professor of Contemporary Literature and Postcolonial Studies at Queen Mary University of London, UK and Extraordinary Associate Professor at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. His previous books include Present Imperfect: Contemporary South African Writing (2017) and South African Textual Cultures (2007).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Contributors

1. Introduction, Rita Barnard (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
2. Revolutionary Times: Mongane Wally Serote and Cold War Fiction, Monica Popescu (McGill University, Canada)
3. After Marikana: The Temporalities of Betrayal, Annel Pieterse (University of the Western Cape, South Africa)
4. Still Waiting? Writing Futurity after Apartheid, Katherine Hallemeier (Oklahoma State University, USA)
5. Precarious Time and the Aesthetics of Community, Sarah Lincoln (Portland State University, USA)
6. Storying Trauma: Unconfessed as a Site of Political Possibility, Erica Still (Wake Forest University, USA)
7. Reach Forward, into the Past: Nostalgia as Post-Transitional Mode, Erica Lombard (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)
8. Crime Fiction in a Time of AIDS: South African Muti Noir, Brenna Munro (University of Miami, USA)
9. Queer Returns in Postapartheid Short Fiction: S. J. Naudé's The Alphabet of Birds, Andrew van der Vlies (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
10. History and the Genres of Modernity: Marlene van Niekerk's Agaat,Lily Saint (Wesleyan University, USA)
11. Transition as Democratic Form: The Unfinishable Work of Ivan Vladislavic, Chris Holmes (Ithaca College, USA)
12. Conclusion: Reading in Transition, Tsitsi Jaji (Duke University, USA)

Index