Black Consciousness and South Africa's National Literature

Tom Penfold

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9783319579399
• eBook ISBN: 9783319579405
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: African Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This book analyses Black Consciousness poetry and theatre from the 1970s through to the present. South Africa's literature, like its history, has been beset by disagreement and contradiction, and has been consistently difficult to pin down as one, united entity. Much existing criticism on South Africa's national literature has attempted to overcome these divisions by discussing material written from a variety of different subject positions together. This book argues that Black Consciousnessdesired a new South Africa where African and European cultures were valued equally, and writers could represent both as they wished.Thus, a body of literature was created that addressed a range of audiences and imagined the South African nation in different ways. This book explores Black Consciousness in order to demonstrate how South African writers have responded in various ways to the changing history and politics of their country.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 The History of Black Consciousness
• Chapter 3 Literary Journals and the Direction of the Nation
• Chapter 4 Black Consciousness and the Soweto Poets
• Chapter 5 Theatrical Performance in the 1980s
• Chapter 6 The Poets of No Sure Place
• Chapter 7 Continued Imaginings
• Index