Can Themba : the making and breaking of the intellectual tsotsi, a biography / Siphiwo Mahala.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mahala, Siphiwo, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Authors, South African--20th century--Biography.

Authors, South African.

Themba, Can, 1924-1967.

Themba, Can.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 260 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Johannesburg, South Africa : Wits University Press, [2022]

Summary:

This rich and absorbing biography of Can Themba, iconic Drum-era journalist and writer, is the definitive history of a larger-than-life man who died too young. Siphiwo Mahala's intensive and often fresh research features unprecedented archival access and interviews with Themba's surviving colleagues and family. Mahala's biography takes a critical historical approach to Themba's life and writing, giving a picture of the whole man, from his early beginnings in Marabastad to his sombre end in exile in Swaziland. The better-known elements of his life - his political views, passion for teaching and mentoring, family life and his drinking - are woven together with an examination of his literary influences and the impact of his own writing (especially his famous short story 'The Suit') on modern African writers in turn. Mahala, a master storyteller, deftly follows the threads of Themba's dynamic life, showcasing his intellectual acumen, scholarly aptitude and wit, along with his flaws, contradictions and heartbreaks, against a backdrop of the sparkle and pathos of Sophiatown of the 1950s. Can Themba's successes and failures as well as his triumphs and tribulations reverberate on the pages of this long-awaited biography. The result is an authoritative and entertaining account of an often misunderstood figure in South Africa's literary canon.

Contents:

Front Cover

Half Title Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I: Death and Birth of a Scribe

1 A Knock on the Door

2 The Poet Laureate of Fort Hare

3 The Teacher of Life and Letters

4 From Marabastad to Sophiatown and Beyond

Part II: 'Live Fast and Die Young'

5 The Drum Seduction

6 Occasions for Loving

7 Drumming up a Storm

8 Destruction and Demise

9 The Road to Swaziland: A Kind of Suicide

Part III: The 'Intellectual Tsotsi'

10 Black Englishman or Detribalised African? A Quest for Shared Identities

11 A Politico in a Poet

12 The People's Intellectual

Part IV: Dances with Texts: Writing and Storytelling

13 No Ordinary Storyteller

14 Intertextuality and the Making of Mr Shakespeare

15 The Suit for All Seasons

Part V: A Writer's Immortality

16 Re-Membering the Fragments

Postscript: The Three Burials of Can Themba

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Back Cover.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781776147342

OCLC:

1308978071