Present Imperfect

Contemporary South African Writing

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Nonfiction, History
Cover of the book Present Imperfect by Andrew van der Vlies, OUP Oxford
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Andrew van der Vlies ISBN: 9780192512543
Publisher: OUP Oxford Publication: May 26, 2017
Imprint: OUP Oxford Language: English
Author: Andrew van der Vlies
ISBN: 9780192512543
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication: May 26, 2017
Imprint: OUP Oxford
Language: English

Present Imperfect asks how South African writers have responded to the end of apartheid, to the hopes that attended the birth of the 'new' nation in 1994, and to the inevitable disappointments that have followed. The first full-length study of affect in South Africa's literature, it understands 'disappointment' both as a description of bad feeling and as naming a missed appointment with all that was promised by the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid Struggle (a dis-appointment). Attending to contemporary writers' treatment of temporality, genre, and form, it considers a range of negative feelings that are also experiences of temporal disjuncture-including stasis, impasse, boredom, disaffection, and nostalgia. Present Imperfect offers close readings of work by a range of writers - some known to international Anglophone readers including J.M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Ivan Vladislavic, and Zoë Wicomb, some slightly less well-known including Afrikaans-language novelists Marlene van Niekerk and Ingrid Winterbach, and others from a new generation including Songeziwe Mahlangu and Masande Ntshanga. It addresses key questions in South African studies about the evolving character of the historical period in which the country now finds itself. It is also alert to wider critical and theoretical conversations, looking outward to make a case for the place of South African writing in global conversations, and mobilizing readings of writing marked in various ways as 'South African' in order to complicate the contours of World Literature as category, discipline, and pedagogy. It is thus also a book about the discontents of neoliberalism, the political energies of reading, and the fates of literature in our troubled present.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Present Imperfect asks how South African writers have responded to the end of apartheid, to the hopes that attended the birth of the 'new' nation in 1994, and to the inevitable disappointments that have followed. The first full-length study of affect in South Africa's literature, it understands 'disappointment' both as a description of bad feeling and as naming a missed appointment with all that was promised by the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid Struggle (a dis-appointment). Attending to contemporary writers' treatment of temporality, genre, and form, it considers a range of negative feelings that are also experiences of temporal disjuncture-including stasis, impasse, boredom, disaffection, and nostalgia. Present Imperfect offers close readings of work by a range of writers - some known to international Anglophone readers including J.M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Ivan Vladislavic, and Zoë Wicomb, some slightly less well-known including Afrikaans-language novelists Marlene van Niekerk and Ingrid Winterbach, and others from a new generation including Songeziwe Mahlangu and Masande Ntshanga. It addresses key questions in South African studies about the evolving character of the historical period in which the country now finds itself. It is also alert to wider critical and theoretical conversations, looking outward to make a case for the place of South African writing in global conversations, and mobilizing readings of writing marked in various ways as 'South African' in order to complicate the contours of World Literature as category, discipline, and pedagogy. It is thus also a book about the discontents of neoliberalism, the political energies of reading, and the fates of literature in our troubled present.

More books from OUP Oxford

Cover of the book A Posteriori Error Estimation Techniques for Finite Element Methods by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book The Darwinian Tourist by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book Retrieval Medicine by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book Shakespeare's Comedies: A Very Short Introduction by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book Intangible Cultural Heritage in International Law by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book Environmental Protection and Transitions from Conflict to Peace by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book The Canterbury Tales by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book ReNEUAL Model Rules on EU Administrative Procedure by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book Fight or Flight by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book Simon V of Montfort and Baronial Government, 1195-1218 by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book The Maudsley Handbook of Practical Psychiatry by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book Left Out by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book The Oxford History of Hinduism: The Goddess by Andrew van der Vlies
Cover of the book How Imitation Boosts Development by Andrew van der Vlies
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy