Grounds of engagement : apartheid-era African American and South African writing /

The double entendre of this book's title signals its focus on both conceptual and literal grounds. As Robolin (Rutgers) writes in the introductory chapter, he "foregrounds the significance of social and physical geography in black South African and African American imaginaries because nowhere is the entanglement of race and space more elemental or pervasive than in these segregated societies." Using what he calls "black transnationalism," which he carefully defines as transnationalism with a "stronger challenge to the category of the nation-state," the author devotes the remaining four chapters to analyzing pairs or groups of writers who entered into literary engagements that were mutually generative and influential: Richard Wright and Peter Abrahams; Keorapetse Kgositsile and his relationship with African American writers during his exile in the US; Bessie Head and her correspondence with Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Michelle Cliff; and Richard Rive, Michelle Cliff, Audre Lorde, and Gwendolyn Brooks and how their early contact impacted their later work. Theory is deftly deployed and never jargon-laden. Based largely on extensive archival research in Africa and America, this fascinating, well-documented study makes a significant contribution to understanding intertextual and transnational interactions of South African and African American writers at a time of crucial struggles against racism in both countries. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Elizabeth R. Baer, Gustavus Adolphus College