Post-Traumatic: South African Short Stories

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Author :
Publisher : African Books Collective
ISBN 13 : 1990922228
Total Pages : 239 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (99 download)

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Book Synopsis Post-Traumatic: South African Short Stories by : Chris van Wyk

Download or read book Post-Traumatic: South African Short Stories written by Chris van Wyk and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2008-12-25 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributors of this anthology make up a wide spectrum of South Africans: black, white, men and women, established and budding who write in either English or Afrikaans. Among these are writers who began their careers in the fifties (George Weideman), to those who were active in the black consciousness period of the seventies (Achmat Dangor, Chris van Wyk, Maropodi Mapalakanye) through to writers who first appeared in print in the eighties and nineties (Rayda Jacobs, Finuala Dowling, Zachariah Raphola, Roshila Nair, Roy Blumenthal, Allan Kolski Horwitz). While many of the writers in this anthology have established themselves as poets, novelists, dramatists and oral storytellers, they all choose the short story as another means of expressing a diverse South Africa of rural and urban life, white suburbia, black township, childhood, love, hate, reconciliation, the grim as well as the funny that make up the tapestry of a country as it used to be and as it is today.

The Short Story in South Africa

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000562409
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis The Short Story in South Africa by : Rebecca Fasselt

Download or read book The Short Story in South Africa written by Rebecca Fasselt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-03-25 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers the key critical interventions on short story writing in South Africa written in English since the year 2000. The short story genre, whilst often marginalised in national literary canons, has been central to the trajectory of literary history in South Africa. In recent years, the short story has undergone a significant renaissance, with new collections and young writers making a significant impact on the contemporary literary scene, and subgenres such as speculative fiction, erotic fiction, flash fiction and queer fiction expanding rapidly in popularity. This book examines the role of the short story genre in reflecting or championing new developments in South African writing and the ways in which traditional boundaries and definitions of the short story in South Africa have been reimagined in the present. Drawing together a range of critical interventions, including scholarly articles, interviews and personal reflective pieces, the volume traces some of the aesthetic and thematic continuities and discontinuities in the genre and sheds new light on questions of literary form. Finally, the book considers the place of the short story in twenty-first century writing and interrogates the ways in which the short story form may contribute to, or recast ideas of, the post-apartheid or post-transitional. The perfect guide to contemporary short story writing in South Africa, this book will be essential reading for researchers of African literature.

Traumatic Storytelling and Memory in Post-Apartheid South Africa

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429959028
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis Traumatic Storytelling and Memory in Post-Apartheid South Africa by : Christopher J. Colvin

Download or read book Traumatic Storytelling and Memory in Post-Apartheid South Africa written by Christopher J. Colvin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-14 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the practice of traumatic storytelling that emerged out of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and came to play a key role in the lives of the members of the Khulumani Support Group for victims of apartheid-era political violence. Group members found traumatic storytelling both frustrating and yet also an important form of memory work that shaped how they saw themselves in the post-apartheid era. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the author examines how traumatic storytelling functioned not only as a kind of psychological healing and national political theatre, but also as a potent form of social relation, economic exchange, political activism, and expressive practice. With emphasis on the personal, social, and political significance of the act of traumatic storytelling, this volume asks why members of Khulumani, despite their many disappointments, continued to engage intensively in storying their experiences for themselves and others. Examining what powers storytelling held for both group members and their witnesses, and considering the ways in which storytelling enabled new senses of self and new understandings of what was possible in the years after the end of apartheid, this book considers what we might learn more broadly from the experiences of Khulumani about the possibilities—and limits—of traumatic-memory-making as an instrument of personal, social, and political repair. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, and criminology with interest in justice and post-conflict societies.

Trauma, Memory, and Narrative in the Contemporary South African Novel

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Author :
Publisher : Brill
ISBN 13 : 940120845X
Total Pages : 419 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis Trauma, Memory, and Narrative in the Contemporary South African Novel by :

Download or read book Trauma, Memory, and Narrative in the Contemporary South African Novel written by and published by Brill. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributions to this volume probe the complex relationship of trauma, memory, and narrative. By looking at the South African situation through the lens of trauma, they make clear how the psychic deformations and injuries left behind by racism and colonialism cannot be mended by material reparation or by simply reversing economic and political power-structures. Western trauma theories – as developed by scholars such as Caruth, van der Kolk, Herman and others – are insufficient for analysing the more complex situation in a postcolony such as South Africa. This is because Western trauma concepts focus on the individual traumatized by a single identifiable event that causes PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). What we need is an understanding of trauma that sees it not only as a result of an identifiable event but also as the consequence of an historical condition – in the case of South Africa, that of colonialism, and, more specifically, of apartheid. For most black and coloured South Africans, the structural violence of apartheid’s laws were the existential condition under which they had to exist. The living conditions in the townships, pass laws, relocation, and racial segregation affected great parts of the South African population and were responsible for the collective traumatization of several generations. This trauma, however, is not an unclaimed (and unclaimable) experience. Postcolonial thinkers who have been reflecting on the experience of violence and trauma in a colonial context, writing from within a Fanonian tradition, have, on the contrary, believed in the importance of reclaiming the past and of transcending mechanisms of victimization and resentment, so typical of traumatized consciousnesses. Narration and the novel have a decisive role to play here.

Traumatic Stress in South Africa

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781776141678
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (416 download)

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Book Synopsis Traumatic Stress in South Africa by : Debra Kaminer

Download or read book Traumatic Stress in South Africa written by Debra Kaminer and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Traumatic stress and post-traumatic stress more particularly, has gained international prominence as a condition or disorder that affects people across the globe in the wake of exposure to extreme life events, be these collective or individual. Given the history of political violence in South Africa, extremely high levels of violence against women and children and the prevalence of violent crime, South Africa has the unfortunate distinction of being considered a real life laboratory in which to study traumatic stress. Taking both a historical and contemporary perspective, the title covers the extent of and manner in which traumatic stress manifests, including the way in which exposure to such extremely threatening events impacts on people's meaning and belief systems. Therapeutic and community strategies for addressing and healing the effects of trauma exposure are comprehensively covered, as well as the particular needs of traumatised children and adolescents. Illustrative case material is used to render ideas accessible and engaging. Traumatic stress in South Africa provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of theory and practice in the field of traumatic stress studies, incorporating both international and South African specific findings. The particular value of the text lies in the integration of global and local material and attention to context related challenges, such as how trauma presentation and intervention is coloured by cultural systems and class disparities. The text would be of particular interest to scholars and practitioners working with traumatic stress in developing countries or in settings in which assessment and intervention resources are limited. The book highlights both psychological and sociopolitical dimensions of traumatic stress and emphasises insights derived from working in the South African context that have potential relevance for shaping the direction of traumatic stress studies"--Bookseller's website.

When Bodies Remember

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Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520250273
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (22 download)

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Book Synopsis When Bodies Remember by : Didier Fassin

Download or read book When Bodies Remember written by Didier Fassin and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-03-14 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description

At Home with Ivan Vladislavić

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Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000854094
Total Pages : 179 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis At Home with Ivan Vladislavić by : Gerald Gaylard

Download or read book At Home with Ivan Vladislavić written by Gerald Gaylard and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-03-31 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At Home With Ivan Vladislavić is the first comprehensive analysis of the works of Ivan Vladislavić. Bringing a flaneur’s "internal GPS" to postcolonial Johannesburg, Vladislavić established a critical sense of home via an intimate knowledge of geography and history. This sense of belonging can have positive ecological effects as we tend to protect what we know. The flaneur’s deep word hoard also helped him to develop a minimalist style, which was not only a means of living sustainably in the city, but in its humour and close attention to detail a way to make greening the city more of a joy than a duty. In this way, Vladislavić created a culture of sustainability. Introduction and Chapter 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

Bessie Head and the Trauma of Exile

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000398633
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (3 download)

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Book Synopsis Bessie Head and the Trauma of Exile by : Joshua Agbo

Download or read book Bessie Head and the Trauma of Exile written by Joshua Agbo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-06-17 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates themes of exile and oppression in Southern Africa across Bessie Head’s novels and short fiction. An exile herself, arriving in Botswana as a South African refugee, Bessie Head’s fiction serves as an important example of African exile literature. This book argues that Head’s characters are driven to exile as a result of their socio- political ambivalence while still in South Africa, and that this sense of discomfort follows them to their new lives. Investigating themes of trauma and identity politics across colonial and post- colonial contexts, this book also addresses the important theme of black- on- black prejudice and hostility which is often overlooked in studies of Head’s work. Covering Head’s shorter fiction as well as her major novels When Rain Clouds Gather (1969), Maru (1971), A Question of Power (1973), Serowe: Village of the Rain Wind (1981), and A Bewitched Crossroads: An African Saga (1984), this book will be of interest to researchers of African literature and postcolonial history.

When She Was White

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Author :
Publisher : Miramax Books
ISBN 13 : 9781401309374
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis When She Was White by : Judith Stone

Download or read book When She Was White written by Judith Stone and published by Miramax Books. This book was released on 2008-04-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the worst years of official racism in South Africa, the story of one young girl gripped the nation and came to symbolize the injustice, corruption, and arbitrary nature of apartheid. Born in 1955 to a pro-apartheid Afrikaner couple, Sandra Laing was officially registered and raised as a white child. But when she was sent to a boarding school for whites, she was mercilessly persecuted because of her dark skin and frizzy hair. Her parents attributed Sandra's appearance to an interracial union far back in history; they swore Sandra was their child. Their neighbors, however, thought Mrs. Laing had committed adultery with a black man. The family was shunned. And when Sandra was ten, she was removed from school by the police and reclassified as "coloured." As a teenager, Sandra eloped with a black man, and her parents disowned her. The young woman, who had only known the privileged world of the whites, chose to begin again in a poor, rural, all-black township, where life was a desperate, day-to-day struggle against poverty, illness, and a legal system designed to enslave. In this remarkable narrative, veteran journalist and author Judith Stone takes us on her own eye-opening journey as she and Sandra explore the mysteries of Sandra's past and piece together the fractured life of one of apartheid's many victims. As the devastating circumstances of Sandra's life are revealed, Stone comes to understand and admire her for the flawed -- yet enduring -- survivor she is.

South Africa's 'Border War'

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Author :
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1472508246
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (725 download)

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Book Synopsis South Africa's 'Border War' by : Gary Baines

Download or read book South Africa's 'Border War' written by Gary Baines and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-02-27 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: South Africa's 'Border War' provides a timely study of the 'war of words' waged by retired South African Defence Force (SADF) generals and other veterans against critics and detractors. The book explores the impact of the 'Border War' on South African culture and society during apartheid and in the new dispensation and discusses the lasting legacy or 'afterlife' of the war in great detail. It also offers an appraisal of the secondary literature of the 'Border War', supplemented by archival research, interviews and an analysis of articles, newspaper reports, reviews and blogs. Adopting a genuinely multidisciplinary approach that borrows from the study of history, literature, visual culture, memory, politics and international relations, South Africa's 'Border War' is an important volume for anyone interested in the study of war and memory or the modern history of South Africa.

Trauma, Resistance, Reconstruction in Post-1994 South African Writing

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Author :
Publisher : Peter Lang
ISBN 13 : 9781433107009
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Trauma, Resistance, Reconstruction in Post-1994 South African Writing by : Jaspal Kaur Singh

Download or read book Trauma, Resistance, Reconstruction in Post-1994 South African Writing written by Jaspal Kaur Singh and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2010 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The re-conceptualization of South Africa as a democracy in 1994 has influenced the production and reception of texts in this nation and around the globe. The literature emerging after 1994 provides a vision for reconciling the fragmented past produced by the brutality of apartheid policies and consequently shifting social relations from a traumatized past to a reconstructed future. The purpose of the essays in this anthology is to explore, within the literary imagination and cultural production of a post-apartheid nation and its people, how the trauma and violence of the past are reconciled through textual strategies. What role does memory play for the remembering subject working through the trauma of a violent past?

Surfacing

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Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1776146115
Total Pages : 391 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (761 download)

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Book Synopsis Surfacing by : Desiree Lewis

Download or read book Surfacing written by Desiree Lewis and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An anthology dedicated to contemporary Black South African feminist writing influential to today's scholars and radical thinkers Surfacing: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa is the first collection dedicated to contemporary Black South African feminist perspectives. Leading feminist theorist, Desiree Lewis, and poet and feminist scholar, Gabeba Baderoon, have curated contributions by some of the finest writers and thought leaders into an essential resource. Radical polemic sits side by side with personal essays, and critical theory coexists with rich and stirring life histories. The collection demonstrates a dazzling range of feminist voices from established scholars and authors to emerging thinkers, activists and creative practitioners. The writers within these pages use creative expression, photography and poetry in eclectic, interdisciplinary ways to unearth and interrogate representations of blackness, sexuality, girlhood, history, divinity, and other themes. Surfacing asks: what do the African feminist traditions that exist outside the canon look and feel like? What complex cultural logics are at work outside the centers of power? How do spirituality and feminism influence each other? What are the histories and experiences of queer Africans? What imaginative forms can feminist activism take? Surfacing is indispensable to anyone interested in feminism from Africa, which its contributors show in vivid and challenging conversation with the rest of the world. It will appeal to a diverse audience of students, activists, critical thinkers, academics and artists.

The Reactive

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Author :
Publisher : Penguin Random House South Africa
ISBN 13 : 1415206120
Total Pages : 153 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (152 download)

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Book Synopsis The Reactive by : Masande Ntshanga

Download or read book The Reactive written by Masande Ntshanga and published by Penguin Random House South Africa. This book was released on 2014-10-03 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a city that has lost its shimmer, Lindanathi and his two friends Ruan and Cecelia sell illegal pharmaceuticals while chasing their next high. Lindanathi, deeply troubled by his hand in his brother’s death, has turned his back on his family, until a message from home reminds him of a promise he made years before. When a puzzling masked man enters their lives, Lindanathi is faced with a decision: continue his life in Cape Town, or return to his family and to all he has left behind. Rendered in lyrical, bright prose and set in a not-so-new South Africa, The Reactive is a poignant, life-affirming story about secrets, memory, chemical abuse and family, and the redemption that comes from facing what haunts us most.

Where There's Smoke: A Short Story

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Publisher : Ballantine Books
ISBN 13 : 0804180792
Total Pages : 42 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis Where There's Smoke: A Short Story by : Jodi Picoult

Download or read book Where There's Smoke: A Short Story written by Jodi Picoult and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2014-05-19 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bestselling author Jodi Picoult is a masterful storyteller, who “writes with a fine touch, a sharp eye for detail, and a firm grasp of the delicacy and complexity of human relationships” (The Boston Globe). Now, in this original short story, available exclusively as an eBook, Picoult introduces Serenity Jones, one of the fascinating characters from her eagerly awaited new novel, Leaving Time. Even as a child, Serenity Jones knew she possessed unusual psychic gifts. Now, decades later, she’s an acclaimed medium and host of her own widely viewed TV show, where she delivers messages to the living from loved ones who have passed. Lately, though, her efforts to boost ratings and garner fame have compromised her clairvoyant instincts. When Serenity books a young war widow to appear as a guest, the episode quickly unravels, stirring up a troubling controversy. And as she tries to undo the damage—to both her reputation and her show—Serenity finds that pride comes at a high price. Praise for Jodi Picoult “Picoult is a rare writer who delivers, book after book, a winning combination of the literary and the commercial.”—Entertainment Weekly “Picoult is a solid, lively storyteller.”—The New York Times “If Picoult were a general, she would be Patton; if a sports franchise, the New York Yankees; if a natural phenomenon, the sunrise.”—Tampa Tribune

Born a Crime

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Author :
Publisher : One World
ISBN 13 : 0399588183
Total Pages : 279 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis Born a Crime by : Trevor Noah

Download or read book Born a Crime written by Trevor Noah and published by One World. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than one million copies sold! A “brilliant” (Lupita Nyong’o, Time), “poignant” (Entertainment Weekly), “soul-nourishing” (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid “Noah’s childhood stories are told with all the hilarity and intellect that characterizes his comedy, while illuminating a dark and brutal period in South Africa’s history that must never be forgotten.”—Esquire Winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and an NAACP Image Award • Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Time, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Esquire, Newsday, and Booklist Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle. Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life. The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.

The South African Short Story in English, 1920-2010

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198910983
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (989 download)

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Book Synopsis The South African Short Story in English, 1920-2010 by : Marta Fossati

Download or read book The South African Short Story in English, 1920-2010 written by Marta Fossati and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-09-12 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through detailed close readings alongside investigations into the history of print culture, Marta Fossati traces the development of the South African short story in English from the late 1920s to the first decade of the twenty-first century. She examines a selection of short stories by important Black South African writers (Rolfes and Herbert Dhlomo, Peter Abrahams, Can Themba, Alex La Guma, Mtutuzeli Matshoba, Ahmed Essop, and Zoë Wicomb) with an alertness to the dialogue between ethics and aesthetics performed by these texts. This new history of Black short fiction problematises and interrogates the often-polarised readings of Black literature in South Africa that can be torn between notions of literariness, protest, and journalism. Due to material constraints, short fiction in South Africa circulated first and foremost through local print media, which Fossati analyses in detail to show the cross-fertilisation between journalism and the short story. While rooted in the South African context, the short stories considered also hold a translocal dimension, allowing us to explore the ethical and aesthetic practice of intertextuality. These are writings that complicate the aesthetics/ethics binary, generic classifications, and the categories of the literary and the political. Theoretically eclectic in its approach, although largely underpinned by a narratological analysis, The South African Short Story in English, 1920-2010: When Aesthetics Meets Ethics offers a fresh perspective on the South African short story in English, spotlighting several hitherto marginalised figures in South African literary studies.

Handbook of Autobiography / Autofiction

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Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110279819
Total Pages : 2198 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis Handbook of Autobiography / Autofiction by : Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf

Download or read book Handbook of Autobiography / Autofiction written by Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-01-29 with total page 2198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Autobiographical writings have been a major cultural genre from antiquity to the present time. General questions of the literary as, e.g., the relation between literature and reality, truth and fiction, the dependency of author, narrator, and figure, or issues of individual and cultural styles etc., can be studied preeminently in the autobiographical genre. Yet, the tradition of life-writing has, in the course of literary history, developed manifold types and forms. Especially in the globalized age, where the media and other technological / cultural factors contribute to a rapid transformation of lifestyles, autobiographical writing has maintained, even enhanced, its popularity and importance. By conceiving autobiography in a wide sense that includes memoirs, diaries, self-portraits and autofiction as well as media transformations of the genre, this three-volume handbook offers a comprehensive survey of theoretical approaches, systematic aspects, and historical developments in an international and interdisciplinary perspective. While autobiography is usually considered to be a European tradition, special emphasis is placed on the modes of self-representation in non-Western cultures and on inter- and transcultural perspectives of the genre. The individual contributions are closely interconnected by a system of cross-references. The handbook addresses scholars of cultural and literary studies, students as well as non-academic readers.