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South African Studies
2009 Spring Semester - Course Description
South Africa in the Literary Imagination
CEA Partner Institution: Stellenbosch University
Location: Stellenbosch, South AfricaPrimary Subject Area: English Language & Literature
Level(s): 300
Instruction in: English
Recommended Semester Credits: 3
Contact Hours: 45
Description
This course explores the intersection of the political and personal through a collection of stories (specially compiled for this course), and through three plays by well-known South African dramatists (Mhlope, Fugard, and Kani). The collection of stories provides various perspectives on what it is like to live (and write) in a divided and polarized society. How can a writer function in a society where, as Gordimer puts it, 'any attempt to present a totality of human experience is subverted before he [or she] even puts down a word?' The plays by Mhlope (Have you seen Zandile?) and Fugard (Master Harold and the Boys) are partly autobiographical: both explore deeply personal issues, but these are (inevitably) grounded in the racial and cultural configuration of South African society. Kani's Nothing but the Truth presents a poignant and searching exploration of the predicament of the ordinary man caught up in the political turmoil of his time- and it does so against the implicit backdrop of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
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