South African literature after the Truth Commission : mapping loss / Shane Graham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Graham, Shane.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

South African literature--History and criticism.

South African literature.

Physical Description:

ix, 235 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Summary:

In the wake of apartheid, South African culture conveys the sense of being lost in time and space. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission provided an opportunity for South Africans to find their bearings in a nation changing at a bewildering pace; the TRC also marked the beginning of a long process of remapping space, place, and memory. In this groundbreaking book, Shane Graham investigates how post-apartheid theatre-makers and writers of fiction, poetry, and memoir have taken this project forward, using their art to come to terms with South Africa's violent past and rapidly changing present.

Contents:

Introduction : mapping loss

Pt. 1. Spaces of truth-telling : the TRC and post-apartheid literatures of memory

1.1. The calcification of memory : 'The story I am about to tell' and 'He left quietly'

1.2. A theater of displacement : 'Ubu and the Truth Commission'

1.3. The lie where the truth is closest : Anjie Krog's 'Country of my skull'

1.4. Words that look like acts : Ingrid de Kok's 'Transfer' and 'Terrestrial things'

1.5. Irredeemable blood, irretrievable loss : Sindiwe Magona's 'Mother to mother'

Pt. 2. Post-apartheid urban spaces

2.1. Peace through amnesia : Achmat Dangor's 'Bitter fruit'

2.2. The city dissected : Ivan Vladislavić's 'The exploded view'

2.3. Linguistic trips : Phaswane Mpe's 'Welcome to our hillbrow'

2.4. Peripatetic mapping : K. Sello Duiker's 'The quiet violence of dreams'

2.5. Excavating the city : Aziz Hassim's 'The lotus people'

Pt. 3. Excavations and the memory of landscapes

3.1. A map of echoes : Anne Landman's 'The devil's chimney'

3.2. Buried footprints : Zoë Wicomb's 'David's story'

3.3. Burdened by the scars of history : Zakes Mda's 'The heart of redness.'

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [209]-223) and index.

ISBN:

0230615376

9780230615373

OCLC:

259970313

Online:

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