Magona writes both in English and Xhosa. Olivier argues that "There is no obvious reason why it should be unhealthy or abnormal for different literatures to co-exist in one country, each possessing its own infrastructure and allowing theoreticians to develop impressive theories about polysystems". With the war in Angola, grensliteratuur (border literature) started playing an important role, such as Dine van Zyl's[af] Slagoffers, Christiaan Bakkes's Skuilplek and Alexander Strachan's 'n Wreld sonder grense. During the 1950s, Drum became a hotbed of political satire, fiction, and essays, giving a voice to urban black culture. Leroux produced less, but had a profound influence on the literary scene. Yet political idealism proposing a unified "South Africa" (a remnant of the colonial British approach) has seeped into literary discourse and demands a unified national literature, which does not exist and has to be fabricated. Poet and critic. By mid-century Afrikaans was changing from an essentially pastoral language to an urban one, expressing the frustrations and stresses of the city dweller. It was published in 1914 by the Lovedale Press, and has been a significant influence on subsequent isiXhosa literature. Several influential black poets became prominent in the 1970s such as Mongane Wally Serote, whose most famous work, No Baby Must Weep, gave insight into the everyday lives of black South Africans under Apartheid. 1925), and epic plays including those of H. I. E. Dhlomo, or heroic epic poetry such as the work of Mazizi Kunene. The major poetry anthologies are DJ Opperman's Groot Verseboek, Foster and Viljoen's Poskaarte, Gerrit Komrij's controversial Die Afrikaanse posie in 1000 en enkele gedigte, and Andr P. Brink's Groot Verseboek, a remake or reworking of Opperman's anthology. Van Wyk Louw introduced international literary theories and movements into the South African literary scene on a much larger scale than any of his predecessors, and his "theory provided the intellectual and philosophical space within which poets and novelists could exercise their craft without fear of transgression; in short, it became the paradigm for Afrikaans literature" (Olivier). One of the biggest challenge South African crime writers face is finding a way to write for and engage with an audience desensitised by violence. Olivier argues: "Of all the literatures in South Africa, Afrikaans literature has been the only one to have become a national literature in the sense that it developed a clear image of itself as a separate entity, and that by way of institutional entrenchment through teaching, distribution, a review culture, journals, etc. Andre Brink was the first Afrikaner writer to be banned by the government after he released the novel A Dry White Season about a white South African who discovers the truth about a black friend who dies in police custody. Among the new writers were the poet Peter Blum and the short-story writer Jan Rabie. Her novel God's Stepchildren (1924) was the first major South African work of fiction to deal with miscegenation and the plight of the colored people. Miriam Tlali was the first black woman to publish a novel in South Africa with Muriel at Metropolitan (1975) (also known as Between Two Worlds). The poet D.J. A possible reason for this is that it was made into a film starring James Earl Jones, and it depicts a typical racist situation that fits well with American perceptions of South African society. Some of the most prominent Sesotho authors are MKPD Maphala, BM Khaketla, and Thomas Mofolo. In the first half of the 20th century, epics largely dominated black male writing: historical novels, such as Sol T. Plaatje's Mhudi: An Epic of South African Native Life a Hundred Years Ago (1930), Thomas Mofolo's Chaka (trans. The novel was a revelation in Victorian literature: it is heralded by many as introducing feminism into the novel form. Jaco Fouch's Ryk van die Rawe. In short, Afrikaans prose tends to be critical of the dominant ideologies and the government of the time, the society inhabiting this space and the people living within this society. of Zimbabwe, and others. Paton also produced Too Late the Phalarope, another text criticising Apartheid politics, in particular the Immorality Act which forbade interracial sexual relations. The first fictional works to emerge from South Africa were produced by colonial writers whose attitude to indigenous South Africans was, at best, ambivalent, if not outright hostile. [4] It also sees itself as a place where South African writers can promote themselves. The different situations and changes that have come about have had a big effect on South African writers and the works they produced and produce today. Elleke Boehmer (cf. Other prominent texts include Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams, Alex La Guma's Walk in the Night, Breyten Breytenbach's The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist, Marlene van Niekerk's Triomf, Nadine Gordimer's Burger's Daughter, Andre Brink's Dry White Season, Richard Rive's Buckingham Palace, District Six, Andre Brink's Rumours of Rain, Nadine Gordimer's July's People, Sipho Sepamla's Ride on the Whirlwind, and Mongane Serote's To every birth its blood. Unity Dow (1959), judge, human rights activist, writer and minister of basic education; Bessie Head (19371986), novelist and short-story writer born in South Africa [Killam & Rowe] Leetile Disang Raditladi (19101971), playwright and poet ; Barolong Seboni (1957), poet and academic South African Literature: A Global Lesson in One Country. Eastern Africa has been through great historical upheavals in the relatively short span of fifty years. South Africa's borders were drawn up by the British Empire and, as with all other colonies, these borders were drawn without regard for the people living within them. Malherbe, who wrote numerous prolix narratives on Biblical themes and South African pioneering history; and C.M. The Second Afrikaans Language Movement spread north from Cape Province, and Afrikaans gradually won ascendancy over Dutch, replacing Dutch as the medium of instruction in schools, as the language of the Dutch Reformed churches, and finally as an official language of the (then) Union of South Africa in 1925. After political changes in 1994, an emphasis on the past has become an important feature as South Africans attempted to make sense of their past, of which Dan Sleigh's Eilande and Andr P. Brink's Duiwelskloof are examples. Afrikaans prose writing made important strides in the 1920s and 30s. In South Africa the situation is different. Prose fiction in Eastern Africa is rich and vibrant. Modern South African writing in the African languages tends to play at writing realistically, at providing a mirror to society, and depicts the conflicts between rural and urban settings, between traditional and modern norms, racial conflicts and most recently, the problem of AIDS. Political turmoil and the opening of South Africa's borders after the 1994 elections have resulted in many writers moving abroad, or writing about their time spent overseas, e.g. Professor Chris Mann[1] is a poet presently associated with Rhodes University and has compiled a number of anthologies of poetry. South African literature - South African literature - In English: South African literature in English effectively began in the late 19th century in the states preceding the Republic of South Africa and became fairly copious in the 20th. Around the same time, future Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer began publishing her first stories. [4] All three festivals also aim to draw children and young adults into reading by organizing special events for these audiences and funding projects such as school libraries. Mossman, Robert. Another noteworthy drama is Zakes Mda's We shall sing for the fatherland. His novel The Heart of Redness won the 2001 Commonwealth Writers Prize, and was made a part of the school curriculum across South Africa. Therefore: in a history of South African literature, do we include all Tswana writers, or only the ones with South African citizenship? This page was last edited on 5 March 2021, at 10:07. English-speaking South African writers are mainly urban and cosmopolitan; their culture is English, and they often have a wider audience among English-speaking communities abroad. And finally, in the 1960s the short story emerged as an important genre in Afrikaans with the works of Chris Barnard, Abraham H. de Vries, and Hennie Aucamp. English poetry in South Africa is often considered "good" by whether or not it criticises Apartheid, or whether or not it depicts life "as it is", rather than the Afrikaans emphasis on literary merit taken from Russian Formalism and introduced by Van Wyk Louw. 2003 Nobel Prize winner John M. Coetzee is the most internationally acclaimed writer South Africa has produced, and a truly unique and fascinating voice. David Lambkin also deserves mentioning, The Hanging Tree reading like a Leroux novel with various Jungian and alchemistic substrates. Although South Africa became independent in 1910, the nations varied ethnic constituents have not yet been unified in a harmonious whole, and the tension arising from the unequal relations between blacks and whites is the authentic note of much South African literature. South Africas publishing history has gone through major changes over especially the last few decades, from apartheid to democracy. Out of the Boers defeat in the South African War (18991902) came a new upsurge to establish Afrikaans as a national language. African American literature - African American literature - Prose, drama, and poetry: Through the slave narrative, African Americans entered the world of prose and dramatic literature. van Wyk Louws Germanicus (1956) and Oppermans Periandros van Korinthe (1954), both of which make use of classical themes. Defining South African Literature for a New Nation Njabulo S Ndebela South Africa is the one country where social and political contradictions have been so stark that the influence of politics on other social activities and vice versa, has been most easily observable. In 1853 William Wells Brown, an internationally known fugitive slave narrator, authored the first Black American novel, Clotel; or, The Presidents Daughter. Rather, it seems more sensible to discuss South African literature as literature produced within the national borders by the different cultures and language groups inhabiting these borders. The two foremost Romantic novelists were D.F. Omissions? It is like a protest in the sense that writers of this period attempted to correct the long-held prejudices and aspersions cast on African tradition and cultural ethos by the white. Afrikaans drama lagged behind poetry and prose. The volume focuses on the scope and development of South African literature from 1970 to 1995. Prevailing critical practice tends to view South African literature as comprising a number of writing communities in the country whose works and concerns have little to Beginning in the 1880s, the movement laid the foundation for the political nationalism that coalesced following British conquest and contributed to the ideology of apartheid. Ernst van Heerden, another major poet who emerged in the 1940s, veered from tightly structured, rather impersonal verse to freer forms expressive of human vulnerability. Brink, Andr and J. M. Coetzee, eds. Andr P. Brink and Etienne Leroux deserve special mention, Brink not only because he is accessible to English readers (he writes in English and Afrikaans, e.g. The most important of the Sestigers were the novelists Etienne Leroux and Andr P. Brink and the poet Breyten Breytenbach. T. T. Cloete is further noteworthy for his compilation, Literre Terme en Teorie (1992), which is one of the most encompassing works on literary theory available on the global market, although written in Afrikaans. Poets were the outstanding writers of the second movement, which spanned the first two decades of the 20th century. Andr Brink has written in both Afrikaans and English while Breyten Breytenbach writes primarily in Afrikaans, though many of their works have been translated into English. Opperman came into prominence in 1945. He was followed by his elder brother, N.P. 1998. However, Mossman (1990: 41) argues that "The most frequently taught work of South African literature in American classrooms is Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) by Alan Paton". South African literature is not South African English literature, but embraces all the languages and cultures of the people of South Africa. South Africa has 11 national languages: , . This style had a profound influence on writers such as Ingrid Winterbach (Lettie Viljoen), Alexander Strachan, and Etienne van Heerden's magical realist novels. Updates? He is also the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. Mariusz Kubik/WikiCommons. This split occurs because, Nkosi claims, black writers are "largely impervious for the most part to cultural movements which have exercised great influence in the development of white writing". Sociologist Charles Spurgeon Johnson, who was integral in shaping the Harlem literary scene, used the debut party for There Is Confusion to organize resources to create Opportunity, the This is especially true of the writers of adventure-type stories, in which colonial heroes are romanticised and the role of black South Africans was reduced to that of enemy or servant. The twin 20th-century phenomena of urbanization and apartheid greatly affected the psychological makeup and thus the literary expression of English- and Afrikaans-speaking whites, as well as of indigenous Africans. Tony Ullyatt's The Lonely Art: An Anthology includes South African English poetry. Ngugi and his supporters were opposed by several African writers, including Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, and others, who challenged the usefulness of such a South African writers have dealt with these problems in diverse ways within their works, as well as looking back at the pernicious legacy of apartheid, which still haunts the country. Celliers, a pastoral poet; Jakob Daniel du Toit (Totius), who wrote some of the best elegiacs in Afrikaans; and C. Louis Leipoldt, whose poetry expressed the suffering inflicted by the South African War and whose collection of short lyric poems, Slampamperliedjies (Songs of a Reveler), express a sensuous appreciation of nature. Female literature in the African languages is severely limited because of the strong influence of patriarchy, but over the last decade or two society has changed much and it can be expected that more female voices will emerge. African Writers Series is a series of books by African writers that has been published by Heinemann since 1962. The problem, however, pre-dates Apartheid significantly, as South Africa is a country made up of communities that have always been linguistically and culturally diverse. https://www.britannica.com/art/South-African-literature, Jewish Virtual Library - South African Literature, Fact Monster - Entertainment - South African Literature, South African History Online - A History of South African Literature, timeline 1824-2005. Sotho, for instance, while transgressing the national borders of the RSA, is on the other hand mainly spoken in the Free State, and bears a great amount of relation to the language of for example, Zulu. Cat Hellisen (born 1977) Manu Herbstein (born 1936) Christopher Hope (born 1944) Emma Huismans (born 1947) Robin Hyde (19061939), born in South Africa but usually seen as a New Zealand writer. But very scanty work has been done by African writers and critics on same sex matters. Some of the most prominent Tswana authors are Sol Plaatje, DB Moloto, DPS Monyaise, SA Moroke, Gilbert Modise, MJ Ntsime, LD Raditladi (who had a crater on Mercury named after him), MD Mothoagae, JHK Molao. In order to understand the present it is important to look back at the past. In the 1970s Brink wrote a series of novels depicting the evils and injustices of apartheid. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. The Afrikaans literary system, in contrast to the African languages, engages with European artistic movements such as Symbolism, expressionism, modernism, post-modernism, Dadaism and the like, offering literature familiar to a European or American audience. Afrikaans is a Germanic language closely related to Dutch. Cullhed, 2006: 18) claims that "in South Africa there exists an unhealedI will not say incurablesplit between black and white writing". Cloete et al. One of the archetypes is C. M. van den Heever's Laat Vrugte, which lay the foundations for parodies in the 1960s and later such as Etienne Leroux's Sewe dae by die Silbersteins, Andr P. Brink's Houd-den-bek and Eben Venter's Ek stamel ek sterwe. In the 1960s and 80s there were upsurges of playwriting by younger authorsnotably by Bartho Smit, Andr P. Brink, and Pieter Fouriebut the most impressive achievements in the genre probably remain N.P. Coupled with the small market for writing in African languages, this has led many African writers to write in English and Afrikaans. du Toit, a Dutch Reformed pastor and a versatile and prolific author. The next major paradigm shift came in the 1960s, with T. T. Cloete and Ingrid Jonker, who, after her death, attained cult status. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The emphasis is on Anglophone Africa, although a number of volumes were translated into One of the apartheid eras most prolific writers, Nadine Gordimers works powerfully explore social, moral, and racial issues in a South Africa under apartheid rule. Its focus is on English-speaking South African literature[2] that includes fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Today, African American writers continue to address many of the same societal concerns but are accepted outside of their community, as well. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. His work often inhabits a surreally disjointed terrain, in which the traumas of the country and characters are South African Poet and writer, Krog has won major awards in poetry, journalism, fiction, and translation. Much of the work by persons born in South Africa was limited in its viewpoint; often these writers only dimly apprehended the aspirations, perceptions, and traditions of South Africans belonging to a people other than their own. Duiwelskloof is available as Devil's Valley), but also because the vast oeuvre he produced (prose and drama) sets him apart as arguably the greatest South African writer. Chapman raises the question: [W]hose language, culture, or story can be said to have authority in South Africa when the end of apartheid has raised challenging questions as to what it is to be a South African, what it is to live in, whether South Africa is mlg, and, if so, what its mythos is, what requires to be forgotten and what remembered as we scour the past in order to understand the present and seek a path forward into an unknown future. Emeritus Professor of Afrikaans and Netherlands, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. As urbanisation became more prominent during the time of the two World Wars, other forms emerged, notably the dorpsroman (town novel) such as Lettie Viljoen's Karolina Ferreira, Etienne van Heerden's Die Swye van Mario Salviati, or Alexander Strachan's[af] Die Werfbobbejaan. South African literature is the literature of South Africa, which has 11 national languages: Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Pedi, Tswana, Venda, Swazi, Tsonga and Ndebele. Joan Hambidge (born 1956) Bessie Head (19371986), born in South Africa but usually seen as a Botswanan writer. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The purpose of this unit is to read prose fiction produced by writers from the Eastern African region. His technique superimposes different historical levels intermingled with a fascinating mosaic of themes, images, and allusions from both Africa and a common Western heritage. Coetzee addressed politically charged issues such as race and class in his experimental approach to prose. Some modern poets of note include Joan Hambidge, Hennie Aucamp, Ernst van Heerden, Antjie Krog and Gert Vlok Nel. utter uselessness and senselessness of the anarchy has become the major preoccupation of contemporary East African writers. But one thing that deserves particular attention is South Africas rich pool of talented writers and poets who have created and continue to create classic literature about our cherished land.