The Columbia Guide to South African Literature in English Since 1945

The Columbia Guide to South African Literature in English Since 1945
Author: Gareth Cornwell
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2010-04-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0231503814

From the outset, South Africa's history has been marked by division and conflict along racial and ethnic lines. From 1948 until 1994, this division was formalized in the National Party's policy of apartheid. Because apartheid intruded on every aspect of private and public life, South African literature was preoccupied with the politics of race and social engineering. Since the release from prison of Nelson Mandela in 1990, South Africa has been a new nation-in-the-making, inspired by a nonracial idealism yet beset by poverty and violence. South African writers have responded in various ways to Njabulo Ndebele's call to "rediscover the ordinary." The result has been a kaleidoscope of texts in which evolving cultural forms and modes of identity are rearticulated and explored. An invaluable guide for general readers as well as scholars of African literary history, this comprehensive text celebrates the multiple traditions and exciting future of the South African voice. Although the South African Constitution of 1994 recognizes no fewer than eleven official languages, English has remained the country's literary lingua franca. This book offers a narrative overview of South African literary production in English from 1945 to the postapartheid present. An introduction identifies the most interesting and noteworthy writing from the period. Alphabetical entries provide accurate and objective information on genres and writers. An appendix lists essential authors published before 1945.

The Penguin Book of Southern African Verse

The Penguin Book of Southern African Verse
Author: Stephen Gray
Publisher: Puffin Books
Total Pages: 440
Release: 1989
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Gathers poems by writers from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, Namibia, and Zambia.

The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry in English

The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry in English
Author: Jeremy Noel-Tod
Publisher:
Total Pages: 727
Release: 2013-05-23
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0199640254

This impressive volume provides over 1,700 biographical entries on poets writing in English from 1910 to the present day, including T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, and Carol Ann Duffy. Authoritative and accessible, it is a must-have for students of English and creative writing, as well as for anyone with an interest in poetry.

The Princeton Handbook of World Poetries

The Princeton Handbook of World Poetries
Author: Roland Greene
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 718
Release: 2016-11-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1400880637

An authoritative and comprehensive guide to poetry throughout the world The Princeton Handbook of World Poetries—drawn from the latest edition of the acclaimed Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics—provides a comprehensive and authoritative survey of the history and practice of poetry in more than 100 major regional, national, and diasporic literatures and language traditions around the globe. With more than 165 entries, the book combines broad overviews and focused accounts to give extensive coverage of poetic traditions throughout the world. For students, teachers, researchers, poets, and other readers, it supplies a one-of-a-kind resource, offering in-depth treatment of Indo-European poetries (all the major Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages, and others); ancient Middle Eastern poetries (Hebrew, Persian, Sumerian, and Assyro-Babylonian); subcontinental Indian poetries (Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu, and more); Asian and Pacific poetries (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Nepalese, Thai, and Tibetan); Spanish American poetries (those of Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, and many other Latin American countries); indigenous American poetries (Guaraní, Inuit, and Navajo); and African poetries (those of Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, and other countries, and including African languages, English, French, and Portuguese). Complete with an introduction by the editors, this is an essential volume for anyone interested in understanding poetry in an international context. Drawn from the latest edition of the acclaimed Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics Provides more than 165 authoritative entries on poetry in more than 100 regional, national, and diasporic literatures and language traditions throughout the world Features extensive coverage of non-Western poetic traditions Includes an introduction, bibliographies, cross-references, and a general index

Collected Poems

Collected Poems
Author: Ralph Nixon Currey
Publisher: James Currey Publishers
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2001
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9780852555736

R.N. Currey's poetry records what happens to men in war and life. This is a collection of poems by the poet and writer R.N. Currey. Born in Mafeking in 1907, R.N. Currey was a soldier, poet and at one time a school teacher in Colchester. R.N. Currey is a poet who has pleased poets: T.S.Eliot told him in 1945 that his collection This Other Planet was 'the best war poetry I have seen in these last six years'; Dylan Thomas was so taken with the wit of 'Pelican, St James's Park' that he recited it from memory on a traffic island in front of the BBC just after he had met R.N. Currey for the first time; Roy Campbell, Guy Butler and Jack Cope claimed his work for South Africa.

The New Century of South African Poetry

The New Century of South African Poetry
Author: Michael J. F. Chapman
Publisher: Ad Donker Publishers
Total Pages: 548
Release: 2002
Genre: Poetry
ISBN:

The New Century of South African Poetry presents the challenges of a new millennium. From a 'post-apartheid' perspective, South Africa rejoins the world as it seeks a home. Simultaneously, it searches the past for a shared though diverse inheritance.

Black Consciousness and South Africa’s National Literature

Black Consciousness and South Africa’s National Literature
Author: Tom Penfold
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2017-10-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3319579401

This book analyses Black Consciousness poetry and theatre from the 1970s through to the present. South Africa’s literature, like its history, has been beset by disagreement and contradiction, and has been consistently difficult to pin down as one, united entity. Much existing criticism on South Africa’s national literature has attempted to overcome these divisions by discussing material written from a variety of different subject positions together. This book argues that Black Consciousness desired a new South Africa where African and European cultures were valued equally, and writers could represent both as they wished. Thus, a body of literature was created that addressed a range of audiences and imagined the South African nation in different ways. This book explores Black Consciousness in order to demonstrate how South African writers have responded in various ways to the changing history and politics of their country.

Voices of Justice and Reason

Voices of Justice and Reason
Author: Geoffrey V. Davis
Publisher: Rodopi
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2003
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9789042008267

Over the past fifty years transformations of great moment have taken place in South Africa. Apartheid and the subsequent transition to a democratic, non-racial society in particular have exercised a profound effect on the practice of literature. This study traces the development of literature under apartheid, then seeks to identify the ways in which writers and theatre practitioners are now facing the challenges of a new social order. The main focus is on the work of black writers, prime among them Matsemela Manaka, Mtutuzeli Matshoba and Richard Rive, who, as politically committed members of the oppressed majority, bore witness to the "black experience" through their writing. Despite the draconian censorship system they were able to address the social problems caused by racial discrimination in all areas of life, particularly through forced removals, the migrant labour system, and the creation of the homelands. Their writing may be read both as a comprehensive record of everyday life under apartheid and as an alternative cultural history of South Africa. Particular attention is paid to theatre as a barometer of social change in South Africa. The concluding chapters consider how in the current period of transition writers and arts institutions have set about reassessing their priorities, redefining their function and seeking new aesthetic directions in taking up the challenge of imagining a new society.