1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910502617503321

Autore

Englund Lena

Titolo

South African Autobiography as Subjective History : Making Concessions to the Past / / by Lena Englund

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2021

ISBN

9783030832322

3030832325

Edizione

[1st ed. 2021.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (218 pages)

Collana

African Histories and Modernities, , 2634-5781

Disciplina

820.9968

820.93529968

Soggetti

African literature

Literature, Modern - 20th century

Literature, Modern - 21st century

Creative nonfiction

Collective memory

Culture - Study and teaching

Race

African Literature

Contemporary Literature

Non-Fiction Literature

Memory Studies

Cultural Theory

Race and Ethnicity Studies

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction -- 2. Writing Subjective Histories -- 3. Struggling for Space in Christopher Hope’s The Café de Move-on Blues, Sisonke Msimang’s Always Another Country, and Tumi Morake’s And then Mama Said....: Words That Set My Life Alight- 4. Fighting Disadvantage in Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime and MalaikaWa Azania’s Memoirs of a Born Free -- 5. Coming to Terms with Violence and Xenophobia: Mark Gevisser’s Lost and Found in Johannesburg, Kevin Bloom’s Ways of



Staying and Clinton Chauke’s Born in Chains -- 6. Contemplating Forgiveness in Desmond Tutu’s No Future Without Forgiveness, Lesego Malepe’s Reclaiming Home, and Haji Mohamed Dawjee’s 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. .

Sommario/riassunto

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. Lena Englund is a university researcher in the Department of Finnish Language and Cultural Research, University of Eastern Finland. Her research interests include southern African literature and life writing.