Lifetime Tony Award for Athol Fugard. 25 classic South African reads. Looking for deeper insight into South Africa?
Here are snap reviews of 25 classic South African reads, covering non-fiction, fiction and poetry and featuring a range of the country's greatest novelists, poets, journalists and historians. The World That Made MandelaBy Luli Callinicos Bringing history and geography together, this is a large coffee-table-sized book filled with archival and contemporary images, telling the story of Nelson Mandela and his struggle for South Africa's freedom through the many places associated with his life. From his birthplace in Qunu to the Old Fort in Johannesburg, where he was held prisoner (and which is now the site of the Constitutional Court), from Soweto to Mpumalanga, the images provide a wonderful historical context for South Africa today, combining to form a unique "heritage trail".
Books and literature in South Africa. South Africa has a rich literary history.
In terms of quantity, the literary output is relatively modest. However, in terms of its quality, influence and reach, South African literature has an important place in the world. Though fiction is written in all of the country’s eleven official languages, most literary works are in English and Afrikaans. Out of 576 fiction titles of new and subsequent editions published in 2007, 444 were in Afrikaans, 84 in English, and the reminder in one of the African languages. The diversity of cultures and languages in South Africa makes it difficult to speak about one national literature. The major themes in SA literature have not changed much since the abolition of apartheid in 1994; many writers are still exploring racial issues and re-investigating the past.
SA writer, Nadine Gordimer, wins Nobel Prize for Literature. Nadine Gordimer Date: 3 October, 1991 South African writer Nadine Gordimer won the 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature.
She was the first woman in 25 years to be awarded the honour and the seventh woman laureate in the near-century history of the Nobel Prize. Gordimer is the author of ten novels and more than 200 short stories; her work over the past forty years has insistently and increasingly focused upon the legacies and moral consequences of apartheid. Heralded as well as banned in her native country, Gordimer has consistently refused to leave South Africa. References nobelprize,Nadine Gordimer's biography from the Nobel Prize's official website [online], available at: www.nobelprize.org, [accessed 27 September 2013] africanhistory,This week in African History, 03 October [online], available at: www.africanhistory.about.com ,[accessed 27 September 2013] contemporarywriters,Nadine Gordimer, a biography [online], available at: www.contemporarywriters.com,[accessed 27 September 2013]
A History of South African Literature, timeline1824-2005. The Glasgow Missionary Society founded the school of Lovedale at Alice in the Tyume valley in 1824.
The first biography ever written about a black South African was published. It was written by John A. Chalmers on Rev Tiyo Soga. With the colonisation of South Africa came the emergence of 'The colonial adventure' writer. These colonial writers were unsettled and intrigued by what they perceived to be exotic elements of indigenous cultures. Olive Schreiner's novel, The Story of an African Farm (1883) was published. The first Black-owned and Black-run journal, Tengo Jabavu's Imvo Zabantsundu, was founded. Douglas Blackburn's Prinsloo of Prinsloosdorp was published. Schreiner's Trooper Peter Halkett of Mashonaland was published, it included a critique of Cecil John Rhodes's brutal form of colonialism. Douglas Blackburn's A Burgher Quixote (1903) was published it was his 2nd novel satirising boere corruption.
Douglas Blackburn's novel Leaven is published. 14th July. The reading culture in South Africa. It is estimated that only one percent of the population buys books in a bookstore and that only fourteen percent are active readers.
At the beginning of 2012, several South African media joylessly reported that the country’s adult literacy level, estimated at 89%, is lagging behind some other emerging markets. This in spite of the fact that South Africa directs 18% of total government spending into public education. Of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), only India has lower adult literacy rate at 62.8%.
The UN defines the adult literacy rate as the proportion of people aged 15 years and over who can read, write, and speak. Encouragingly, the youth literacy rate in South Africa is noticeably higher than the national average and stands at 97.57% (2007 UNESCO figures for ages 15 to 24). Other bookstores are also struggling due to lack of buyers. But that is not all. Afrique du Sud, Lire pour comprendre le passé.
Tel un Lonely Planet littéraire, cette collection documentaire menée par Patrick et Olivier Poivre d'Arvor explore un pays à travers ses auteurs.
Dans ce premier chapitre les deux frères nous entraînent en Afrique du Sud, jeune démocratie où la littérature est un formidable outil de compréhension du passé et des enjeux actuels. Extrait : entretien avec Lebogang Mashile. Lorsque l'apartheid s'est effondré en 1994, les libraires ont vu affluer les ouvrages nouveaux et des Sud-africains avides de lecture. Débarrassé des discriminations raciales, ce pays ravagé par le sida et la criminalité butte aujourd'hui sur les inégalités économiques. Reportage Metropolis : Comment dit-on BD en afrikaner ?
Le choix de Patrick Poivre d'ArvorFille de Burger de Nadine Gordimer, Albin MichelUne saison blanche et sèche d'André Brink, Le Livre de PocheDisgrâce de John Maxwell Coetzee, Points.