Fall 2008

Professor Mark Sanders

G29.3630

South African Literature: Matrices of Comparison

With its multiplicity of languages, South Africa offers a rich field for scholars of comparative literature. Because South Africa's history reflects complex interactions and struggles among its languages and their speakers, the study of its literatures necessarily relates disciplinary questions of comparative literature to political and ethical ones, often in direct ways. The goal of this seminar is to introduce you to the literatures of South Africa, and to explore the histories of translation and non-translation between some of the country's multiple languages and literatures, and the aesthetic, political and ethical issues raised by them. Our reading will span the late-colonial, apartheid, and post-apartheid eras, with works written in English, Zulu, Xhosa, and Afrikaans being our main focus. Texts from the last three languages will be read in translation, although students able to read in the original are encouraged to do so. Authors might include, among others, Schreiner, Plaatje, Mofolo, Mqhayi, Louw, Paton, Nyembezi, Jolobe, Breytenbach, Mbuli, Ndebele, Coetzee, Tutu, and Krog. Key critical writings by various scholars will also be studied.