South African Literature After the Truth Commission: Mapping Loss

Authors

Shane Graham, Utah State UniversityFollow

Files

Description

In the wake of apartheid, South African culture conveys the sense of being lost in time and space. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) provided an opportunity for South Africans to find their bearings in a nation changing at a bewildering pace; the TRC also marked the beginning of a long process of remapping space, place, and memory. In South African Literature After the Truth Commission: Mapping Loss, Shane Graham analyzes the attempts of post-apartheid writers of fiction, drama, poetry, and memoir to come to terms with South Africa’s violent past and rapidly changing present. Graham contributes to ongoing debates about political transition and reconciliation in South Africa, and about the intersections of space, place, and memory in the age of globalization. The book considers issues and controversies surrounding the TRC, the literature it inspired, and texts that grapple with broader issues of memorialization, urbanization, and capitalist development. Rita Barnard of the University of Pennsylvania has called it “an unfailingly intelligent and readable book that will prove to be an indispensable scholarly resource.”

ISBN

978-0-230-61537-3

Publisher

Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date

2009

City

New York

Keywords

South African literature, History and criticism, Literatur, Vergangenheitsbewältigung

Recommended Citation

Graham, Shane. South African Literature After the Truth Commission: Mapping Loss. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Comments

Also available for sale through the publisher: Palgrave Macmillan.