130199 PS Social History of Lit. (PS): South African Apartheid Literature (2016W)

Content: South Africa’s experience of violent British and Dutch settler colonialism and the resulting trauma, racial intermixing and cross-cultural exchange meant that African identity has been particularly contested here. Indigenous Africans were denied citizenship rights in their own territory and had to submit to a rule by a white minority who claimed its right on the land in the name of “civilization” and “Christianity” as well as on the literary representation of the country, while it defined itself in opposition to black Africans who were made outsiders in their own homeland. This schism resulted in opposition movements by black Africans who sought to reclaim not only the land and political freedom, but also the right of self-identification. At the same time, the existence of mixed-raced South Africans who responded with their own cultural identity movements complicated the black struggle for self-determination. A particular case were whites who rejected colonialism, putting themselves into a dangerous dissident position. In addition, gender became a further category determining political identities and relationships in South Africa governed by both traditional and colonial patriarchy. This complex history is reflected in the prolific, diverse, multi-lingual and highly politically engaged writing that emerged from South Africa out of a long tradition of resistance and protest. The course will cover a selection of authors (writing mainly in English, but also in Afrikaans) from the colonial and apartheid era through a comparative perspective, pointing out their parallel concerns and mutual influences. Particular attention will be given to the changing concept of “South African identity” in this literature over time, defined through the ideologies of Christianity, ethnic nationalism, racial nationalism, non-racialism, and multiculturalism.
Method: lecture, discussion and homework
Aims:
• identify, analyse and understand the key historical, political, philosophical and aesthetic issues in South African apartheid literature
• apply close reading skills and critical thinking to a variety of literary texts
• reflect critically on the relations between primary texts and relevant secondary texts
• discriminate between ideas and justify personal positions
• produce well-structured, relevant arguments with an appropriate intellectual framework