About the Book
This collection ranges far and wide, as befits the personality and accomplishments of the dedicatee, Geoffrey V. Davis, German studies and exile literature scholar, postcolonialist (if there are ‘specialties’, then Australia, Canada, India, South Africa, Black Britain), journal and book series editor.... Themes covered include publishing in Africa, charisma in African drama, the rediscovery of apartheid-era South African literature, Truth and Reconciliation commissions, South African cinema, children’s theatre in England and Eritrea, and the Third Chimurenga in literary anthologies. Surveyed are texts from Botswana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Writers discussed (or interviewed: Angela Makholwa) include Ayi Kwei Armah, Seydou Badian, J.M. Coetzee, Chielo Zona Eze, Ruth First, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Bessie Head, Ian Holding, Kavevangua Kahengua, Njabulo Ndebele, Lara Foot Newton, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o/Micere Githae Mugo, Sol Plaatje, Ken Saro–Wiwa, Mongane Wally Serote, Wole Soyinka, and Ed¬gar Wallace, together with essays on the artist Sokari Douglas Camp and the filmmaker Rayda Jacobs. Because Geoff’s commitment to literature has always been ‘hands-on’, the book closes with a selection of poems and an entertaining travelogue/memoir.
About the Author :
Gordon Collier has published books on translation and on Patrick White, and is the editor or co-editor of numerous critical anthologies. He is co-general editor of the book-series Cross/Cultures and of the journal Matatu.
Marc Delrez teaches anglophone and comparative literature at the University of Liège. He is the author of a book on Janet Frame and co-editor (with Bénédicte Ledent) of The Contact and the Culmination (1997), a collection of essays on postcolonial literature.
Anne Fuchs taught comparative literature and theatre studies at the University of Nice. She is the co-editor (with Geoff Davis) of two collections of essays on South African and Black British theatre.
Bénédicte Ledent teaches English language and Caribbean literature at the University of Liège. She is the author, editor, and co-editor of books on Caryl Phillips and on Caribbean literature.
Contributors: Jacques Alvarez-Péreyre, Stella Borg Barthet, Marcia Blumberg, Shirley Chew, Brian Crow, M.J. Daymond, Holger Ehling, Anne Fuchs, James Gibbs, Stephen Gray, Gareth Griffiths, Jürgen Jansen, Karen King–Aribisala, Elmar Lehmann, Bernth Lindfors, Mbongeni Malaba, Andrew Martin, Richard Martin, Jürgen Martini, Christine Matzke, Jane Plastow, Monika Reif–Hülser, Christiane Schlote, Frank Schulze–Engler, Jamie S. Scott, Michael Senior, John A Stotesbury, Peter Stummer, Hamish Walker, and Brian Worsfold.
Review :
"Ce premier volume consacré à l’engagement en littérature est captivant. Il propose un aperçu global de l’évolution de la littérature sud-africaine produite pendant l’apartheid et après." – Karen Ferreira-Meyers, University of Swaziland
