1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910779204603321

Autore

Dick Archie L.

Titolo

The hidden history of South Africa's book and reading cultures / / Archie L. Dick

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 2012

©2012

ISBN

1-4426-9508-0

1-4426-9507-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (216 p.)

Collana

Studies in Book and Print Culture

Disciplina

028.9

Soggetti

Books and reading

Books and reading - Political aspects - South Africa - History

South Africans - Books and reading - History

South Africa Intellectual life

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: The Significance of Common Readers in South Africa -- 1 Early Readers at the Cape, 1658-1800 -- 2 Literacy, Class, and Regulating Reading, 1800-1850 -- 3 The Women's Building of Nations: History Books in the Early Twentieth Century -- 4 Books for Troops in the Second World War -- 5 Politics and the Libraries, Part One: Book Theft, Intellectual Fraud, and Book Burning, 1950-1971 -- 6 Politics and the Libraries, Part Two: Dissident Readers and Librarians in the 1980s Townships -- 7 Reading in Exile after Soweto, 1978-1992 -- 8 Combating Censorship and Making Space for Books.

Sommario/riassunto

By looking to records from a slave lodge, women's associations, army education units, universities, courts, libraries, prison departments, and political groups, Archie Dick exposes the key works of fiction and non-fiction, magazines, and newspapers that were read and discussed by political activists and prisoners. Uncovering the book and library schemes that elites used to regulate reading, Dick exposes incidences of intellectual fraud, book theft, censorship, and book burning. Through this innovative methodology, Dick aptly shows how South



African readers used reading and books to resist unjust regimes and build community across South Africa's class and racial barriers."--Pub. desc.

"The Hidden History of South Africa's Book and Reading Cultures shows how the common practice of reading can illuminate the social and political history of a culture. This ground-breaking study reveals resistance strategies in the reading and writing practices of South Africans; strategies that have been hidden until now for political reasons relating to the country's liberation struggles.