Emerging Traditions: Toward a Postcolonial Stylistics of Black South African Fiction in English

The monograph explores the linguistic impact of the colonial and postcolonial situations in South Africa on language policy, on literary production and especially on the stylistics of fiction by indigenous South Africans writing in English. A secondary concern is to investigate the present place of English in the multilingual spectrum of South African languages and to see how this worldly English relates to Global English, in the South African context. The introduction presents a socio-linguistic overview of South Africa from pre-historic times until the present, including language planning policies during and after the colonial era and a cursory review of how the difficulties encountered in implementing the Language Plan, provided for by the new South African constitution, impinge on the development of black South African English. Six chapters track the course of English in South Africa since the arrival of the British in 1795, considered from the point of view of the indigenous African population. The study focuses on ways in which indigenous authors "indigenize" their writing, innovating and subverting stylistic conventions, including those of African orature, in order to bend language and genre towards their own culture and objectives. Each chapter corresponds to a briefly outlined historical period that is largely reflected in linguistic and literary developments. A small number of significant works for each period are discussed, one of which is selected for a case-study at the end of each chapter, where it is subjected to detailed stylistic analysis and appraised for the degree of indigenization or other linguistic or socio-historic influences on style. The methodology adopted is a linguistic approach to stylistics, focusing on indigenization of English, inspired by the work of Chantal Zabus in her book, The African Palimpsest: Indigenization of Language in the West African Europhone Novel (2007, (1991)). The conclusion reappraises the original hypothesis - that the specific characteristi

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter I: A Period of Optimism (1795-1910): Literacy as the Path to Equality Chapter 3 Chapter II: Disillusionment Sets In (1910-1948): Black Englishmen and Urban Natives: First Signs of Indigenization Chapter 4 Chapter III: Under Control (1948-1960): Tsotsis, Tough-talking Journalists from the Urban Ghetto and the Post-Creole Continuum Chapter 5 Chapter IV: Dislocation (1960-1976): Colored or Creole? Writing 'Between Two Fires' in the Sixties Chapter 6 Chapter V: Deadlock (1976-1990): The Old is Dying and the New Cannot be Born Chapter 7 Chapter VI: Breakthrough (1990 and after): Multiple Identities and "Emerging Traditions" Chapter 8 Conclusion

About the Author :
Vicki Briault Manus is associate professor at the University of Stendhal Grenoble 3, France.

Review :
Briault’s comprehensive study of the socio-linguistics of black South African writing, firmly grounded in historical and political change, is nothing short of groundbreaking. Innovative and well-written, it traces stylistic devices through insightful discussions of African orature, indigenization, and creolization of European languages. Illuminating, and a pleasure to read. Manus's linguistically attentive study is a valuable reminder to literary critics not only to return to the language of the text, but also to take seriously the practice of translation—including, crucially, same-language translation—in a culture of daunting and challenging heterogeneity.