Writing South Africa into the World: Contemporary Anglophone (Post)Apartheid Literature as World- and Postcolonial Literature
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In the present article, we discuss the growing visibility of Anglophone (post)apartheid literature on a global stage. We base our argument on Franco Moretti's ‘distant reading’ (2000, 2013) and the Warwick Research Collective's world-literary theory (2015). In a first step, we briefly investigate literary circulation beyond print, considering adaptations in film, television, and theatre. In a second step, we analyse Niq Mhlongo's Way Back Home (2013) and explore how irrealism and traumatic intrusions shape the novel's narrative. Finally, we engage with discussions surrounding the reconsideration of postcolonial literature's role in a world-literary context and argue that South African literature can be read through both the lenses of postcolonial as well as world-literature.
Source: Current Writing
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7089474033