South African autobiography as subjective history : Making concessions to the past 1st ed.

Author

• Englund, Lena

Additional Author(s)

-

Publisher

Cham, Switzerland : Springer International Publishing, 2021

Language

English

ISBN

9783030832322

Series

African histories and modernities

Subject(s)

• AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY
• HISTORIOGRAPHY
• SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE

Notes

. .

Abstract

This book examines 21st-century South African autobiographical writing that addresses the nation’s socio-political realities, both past and present. The texts in focus represent and depict a South Africa caught in the midst of contradictory and competing images of the ‘Rainbow Nation’. Arguing that recent memoirs question and criticize the illusion of a united nation, the study shows how these texts reveal the flaws and shortcomings not only of the apartheid past but of contemporary South Africa. It encompasses a broad range of autobiographical works, largely published since 2009, that engage with South Africa’s past, present and future. At its centre is the quest for space and belonging, and this book investigates who can comfortably ‘belong’ in South Africa in its post-apartheid, post-Truth and Reconciliation, post-Mbkei and post-Zuma state.

Physical Dimension

Number of Page(s)

1 online resource (vi, 214 p.)

Dimension

-

Other Desc.

-

Summary / Review / Table of Content

1. Introduction
2. Writing Subjective Histories
3. Struggling for Space in Christopher Hopes The Cafe de Move-on Blues, Sisonke Msimangs Always Another Country, and Tumi Morakes And then Mama Said ... : Words That Set My Life Alight- 4. Fighting Disadvantage in Trevor Noahs Born a Crime and MalaikaWa Azanias Memoirs of a Born Free
5. Coming to Terms with Violence and Xenophobia: Mark Gevissers Lost and Found in Johannesburg, Kevin Blooms Ways of Staying and Clinton Chaukes Born in Chains
6. Contemplating Forgiveness in Desmond Tutus No Future Without Forgiveness, Lesego Malepes Reclaiming Home, and Haji Mohamed Dawjees Sorry, Not Sorry
7. Rewriting the Legacy of Nelson Mandela: The Memoirs of Ndileka Mandela, Zoleka Mandela and Ndaba Mandela
8. Making Autobiographical Concessions to the Past

Exemplar(s)

#	Accession No.	Call Number	Location	Status
1.	00614/22	820.93529968 Eng S	Online !	Available