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Since the final demise of apartheid in 1994, South Africa has undergone dramatic changes in the political, social, and economic sphere. It is not surprising that these changes have also resulted in contentious reassessments of recent history. Many contemporary South African writers have taken up the challenge and created works offering new ways of critically re-imagining the country's violent past. While André P. Brink's "Imaginings of Sand" and Zakes "Mda's Ways of Dying" constitute renegotiations of the past during the period of transition, J. M. Coetzee's "Disgrace" and Phaswane Mpe's "Welcome to our Hillbrow" represent deliberations of a past that has been hampered in its change by a flawed transition. Just as history can never be taken at face value and never constitutes a finite, all-inclusive narration of the past, the 'historical accounts' provided in these texts often present a one-sided picture of history when considered only on their representational level. On the metafictional level, however, these texts often put such 'misreadings' into perspective and, in doing so, open up an otherwise monochrome reflection of South Africa's rainbow.
“For I was not, as I liked to believe, the indulgent pleasure-loving opposite of the cold rigid Colonel. I was the lie that Empire tells itself when times are easy, he the truth that Empire tells when harsh winds blow.” Thus the Magistrate confesses in Coetzee’s 1980 novel Waiting for the Barbarians. The present study looks closely into the unsettling effects Coetzee’s novels have on the reader and explores the interconnectedness between stylistic choices and moral insights. Its overall aim is to disclose the effectiveness of Coetzee’s narrative strategies to prompt the reader to engage in self-questioning and radical revisions of personal and social moral assumptions. “This is an original and ground-breaking study of Coetzee’s work. Dr Tegla’s insightful close-readings highlight the ways in which Coetzee fictionalizes a variety of moral dilemmas. In particular, she shows how he turns narrative into an instrument for moral discernment. Her narratological approach advances our understanding of his achievements, and I can state without reservation that this book will be referred to as a landmark in Coetzee criticism.” — Richard Bradford, Research Professor and Senior Distinguished Research Fellow, University of Ulster
“Morgan has given an entire generation of Black feminists space and language to center their pleasures alongside their politics.” —Janet Mock, New York Times bestselling author of Redefining Realness “All that and then some, Chickenheads informs and educates, confronts and charms, raises the bar high by getting down low, and, to steal my favorite Joan Morgan phrase, bounced me out of the room.” —Marlon James, Man Booker Prize–winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings Still as fresh, funny, and ferociously honest as ever, this piercing meditation on the fault lines between hip-hop and feminism captures the most intimate thoughts of the post-Civil Rights, post-feminist, post-soul generation. Award-winning journalist Joan Morgan offers a provocative and powerful look into the life of the modern Black woman: a complex world in which feminists often have not-so-clandestine affairs with the most sexist of men, where women who treasure their independence frequently prefer men who pick up the tab, where the deluge of babymothers and babyfathers reminds Black women who long for marriage that traditional nuclear families are a reality for less than forty percent of the population, and where Black women are forced to make sense of a world where truth is no longer black and white but subtle, intriguing shades of gray.
The notion of the postcolonial metropolis has gained prominence in the last two decades both within and beyond postcolonial studies. Disciplines such as sociology and urban studies, however, have tended to focus on the economic inequalities, class disparities, and other structural and formative aspects of the postcolonial metropolises that are specific to Western conceptions of the city at large. It is only recently that the depiction of postcolonial metropolises has been addressed in the writings of Suketu Mehta, Chris Abani, Amit Chaudhuri, Salman Rushdie, Aravind Adiga, Helon Habila, Sefi Atta, and Zakes Mda, among others. Most of these works probe the urban specifics and physical and cultural topographies of postcolonial cities while highlighting their agential capacity to defy, appropriate, and abrogate the superimposition of theories of Western modernity and urbanism. These ASNEL Papers are all concerned with the idea of the postcolonial (in the) metropolis from various disciplinary viewpoints, as drawn from a great range of cityscapes (spread out over five continents). The essays explore, on the one hand, ideas of spatial subdivision and inequality, political repression, social discrimination, economic exploitation, and cultural alienation, and, on the other, the possibility of transforming, reinventing and reconfigurating the ‘postcolonial condition’ in and through literary texts and visual narratives. In this context, the volume covers a broad spectrum of theoretical and thematic approaches to postcolonial and metropolitan topographies and their depictions in writings from Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, South Asia, and greater Asia, as well as the UK, addressing issues such as modernity and market economies but also caste, class, and social and linguistic aspects. At the same time, they reflect on the postcolonial metropolis and postcolonialism in the metropolis by concentrating on an urban imaginary which turns on notions of spatial subdivision and inequality, political repression, social discrimination, economic exploitation, and cultural alienation – as the continuing ‘postcolonial’ condition.
COULD YOU BE LOVED is of all Humankind acknowledging shared origin for Progress with Peace. " . . insightful . . incisive and instructive . . a beautiful poetic move . . brilliant . . author, poet, philosopher Tekla Mekfet relates Bob Marley's poetics to African philosophy, the Bible and the problems of Babylon as we encounter them in Jamaica and the world. . . helps to resolve the tension between the individual and the community, in Rasta poetics . . Historical memory . . clues to liberation in the present. Out of history and prophecy . . philosophy in Rastafari offers unaccustomed wide practical application." (Dr. Noel Erskine, Professor of Theology & Ethics, Emory University, USA). " . . deep understanding of world politics . . knowledge of the world's literary works whether fiction or treatise . . wide knowledge of music of all genres . . erudite . . encyclopedic . . for every and anyone." (Dr. Erna Brodber, sociologist-historian-novelist, University of the West Indies). "In his own thoroughly original way Tekla Mekfet evokes the largesse of spirit and innovative rhetorical performances of Walt Whitman . . Whitman opened up the space of the line in American verse; he had an agile poetic persona; he was chronicler, seer, prophet. In our time Ras Mekfet is accomplishing much the same through his vision and voice." (Michael Kuelker, Professor of English, St. Charles Community College, Rastafari-Reggae researcher, DJ, Missouri). Structure is as vocabulary item, social commentary, music of meaning, "Often, life is not nice neat sentences'. The index invites piece-mealing focus on such as The Word, Logic RHYTHM Household-Community, Reality, Freedom, Whiteness, or Oneness. Varied subjects are explored as symbiotic - as could be related to Spinoza's All is One and The One is Divine', to 'Selassie is The Chapel', to Hegel's 'God' dwelling within Humankind & permanently pervading the universe - related to shared African principles of an all-manifesting all-embracing 'NTU', or JAH of Rastrafari. Of Nature's Logic & Kant's 'Categorical Imperative' for universal oneness. Concept 'Babylon' de-constructed throughout, as is 'Zion'. Of 'Concrete Jungle', The City, Marketed 'God', Moral Relativity, "life-long insecurity." " . . the heavy and the weary weight / Of all this unintelligible world / Is lightened." Mekfet invites you to be free 'of being psychologically blind. For YOU, are living of some measure & mix of philosophy . . that you may be living unperceived." to be recognized "for sense of options for direction. ." - Mother Africa's Philosophy, Rastafari, The Bible, & cross-refs philosophy of West & East - Philosophy in Reggae, Jazz, Dancehall Music: Atavistic Appeal African Rhythms Worldwide - Culture of Politics, Mis-Education, Violence & Masculinity in 'Jamaica'/'Carry-beyond' - A Rastafari Journey, Jamaica & Social Prejudice - Animism & Literary Imagery. Multi-cultural imagery 'Christ'/Re-patria-tion/Ancestor Worship - 'Israel' & 'Jerusalem' not as geographical entities, but as universal concepts for social organization related to Rhythm of Ecology & Bio-diversity, the Cosmos as a single organism, & Bio-mimicry - all antithesis of concept of 'Babylon'
It is gradually being acknowledged that the Arabic story-collection Thousand and One Nights has had a major influence on European and world literature. This study analyses the influence of Thousand and One Nights, as an intertextual model, on 20th-century prose from all over the world. Works of approximately forty authors are examined: those who were crucial to the development of the main currents in 20th-century fiction, such as modernism, magical realism and post-modernism. The book contains six thematic sections divided into chapters discussing two or three authors/works, each from a narratological perspective and supplemented by references to the cultural and literary context. It is shown how Thousand and One Nights became deeply rooted in modern world literature especially in phases of renewal and experiment.
Robert A. Parker follows up each book he reads, mainly novels, with an evaluation of that book. His comments are informed by his Jesuit upbringing but also by an independent critical view that balances a moral and literary sensibility. In this fourth of six volumes, the authors covered range from Jean Lacouture to Montherlant. The commentaries are listed alphabetically by author, and about 100 authors are included in this volume. Future volumes will cover additional authors alphabetically. The writers here represent a broad range of writing styles, cultural influences, and moral philosophies.
Christianity exists in relation to and interacts with its cultural environment in a number of ways. In this volume authors from a wide variety of backgrounds explore various facets of the relationship and interaction of Christianity with its cultural environment: politics, society, esthetics, religion and spirituality, and with itself. Divided into three main sections, Crossroad Discourses between Christianity and Culture looks at the interaction of Christianity with culture in the first section, with other religions and spiritualities in the second, and finally with itself in the third. The contributions engage in a critical examination of not only the culture in which Christianity finds itself but also in a critical examination of Christianity itself and its interaction with that culture. The editors hope that teachers, students, and readers in general will profit greatly from the critical articles contained in this book.
Arthur Miller is regarded as one of the most important playwrights of the twentieth century, and his work continues to be widely performed and studied around the world. This updated Companion includes Miller's work since the publication of the first edition in 1997 - the plays Mr Peters' Connections, Resurrection Blues, and Finishing the Picture - and key productions of his plays since his death in 2005. The chapter on Miller and the cinema has been completely revised to include new films, and demonstrates that Miller's work remains an important source for filmmakers. In addition to detailed analyses of plays including Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, Miller's work is also placed within the context of the social and political climate of the time. The volume closes with a bibliographic essay which reviews the key studies of Miller and also contains a detailed chronology of the work of this influential dramatist.