Rendering things visible : essays on South African literary culture /

The subtitle of this collection indicates a broader intention than a literary study. The link is in the expectation that this turbulent period must generate "an anti-ethnic political culture." The titles commonly include terms such as ideology, crisis, insurgence, struggle, politics. Nadine Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee are indubitably the best; but here they provoke critics who find in their superior imagination evidence of a questionable indifference to events. An interesting essay by Maughan-Brown deplores the popularizing of racist attitudes by best-selling author Wilbur Smith. Subsequent essays cover all genres of South African writing from 1970 to the present novels, black and white poetry, theater, and writing in Afrikaans. Each essay has extensive notes and references. The information conveyed constitutes a comprehensive survey of the major critics' ideas and authors' themes. The contributors are English department faculty, and the style and language of their presentations, sometimes reprinted from academic journals, may daunt many readers. This collection is not for the uninitiated; it is addressed to those whose studies have prepared them for, or inured them to, this level of scholarship i.e., graduate students and faculty.-J. Povey, University of California, Los Angeles