Ebook: Literature and Society in South Africa

Literature and Society in South Africa is a powerful collection of essays by some of the field's foremost writers and scholars based on papers given at a conference on 'Literature and Society in Southern Africa', held at the University of York, 1981. The essays form a wide-ranging survey of the relationship between both black and white literature and society in the development of South Africa. Xhosa and Zulu-Ndebele praise-poetry, the 'colonial' novel in English and Afrikaans, and Black theatre and writing of the last hundred years are explored afresh. United in the belief that literature and literary criticism can never be autonomous activities, the contributors argue that criticism of literature is inextricably linked to criticism of society.

This exciting and challenging book is essential reading for students of South African and African literature, and all interested in the past, present and future role of black and white literature in South African society.