The South African Novel in English: Essays in Criticism and Society

213 Pages·1978·19.08 MB·English

by  Kenneth Parker (eds.)

THE SOUTH AFRICAN NOVEL IN ENGLISH
THE SOUTH
AFRICAN NOVEL
IN ENGLISH
Essays in Criticism and Society
Edited by
Kenneth Parker
Selection, editorial matter and chapters 1 and 7 © Kenneth Parker 1978
Ctapter 2 © Ursula Edmands 1978
Ctapter 3 © The British Council and Arthur Ravenscroft 1978
Ctapter 4 © Tim Couzens 1978
Ctapter 5 © David Rabkin 1978
Ctapters 6, 8 and 9 © Michael Wade 1978
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1978
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any fonn or by any means,
without permission
First published 1978 by
TilE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
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Typeset in Great Britain by
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British library Cataloguing in Publication Data
The South African Novel in English
1. South African fiction (English)-20th
century-History and criticism-Addresses, es
says, lectures
I. Parker, Kenneth
823 PR9362.5
ISBN 978-1-349-03691-2 ISBN 978-1-349-03689-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-03689-9
This book is sold subject
to the standard conditions
of the Net Book Agreement
for
Gabrielle, Philippe and Antony
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Notes on the Contributors ix
Preface xi
1. Kenneth Parker - The South African Novel in English 1
2. Ursula Edmands - Olive Schreiner 27
3. Arthur Ravenscroft - Pauline Smith 46
4. Tim Couzens - Sol Plaatje's Mhudi 57
5. David Rabkin - Race and Fiction: God's Stepchildren
and Turbott Wolfe 77
6. Michael Wade - South Africa's First Proletarian Writer 95
7. Kenneth Parker - Nadine Gordimer and the Pitfalls of
Liberalism 114
8. Michael Wade - Nadine Gordimer and Europe-in-Africa 131
9. Michael Wade - Art and Morality in Alex Ia Guma' s
A Walk in the Night 164
Notes 192
Index 199
vii
Acknowledgements
The editor and publisher wish to thank the following, who have given
permission for the use of copyright material:
The editor of The journal of Commonwealth Literature and Oxford
University Press for permission to include the articles by Ursula
Edmands on Olive Schreiner from the issue of December 1969, and by
Tim Couzens on Sol Plaatje from the issue of June 1973; and for extracts
from the article by Michael Wade, 'William Plomer: English liberalism
and the South African Novel', from the issue of June 1973;
The British Council for permission to include Arthur Ravenscroft's
article on Pauline Smith;
Evans Publishers for permission to include the chapter entitled 'South
Africa's First Proletarian Writer', from Michael Wade's Peter Ab
rahams.
viii
Notes on the contributors
Tim Couzens studied at Rhodes University, Grahamstown (South
Africa) and at Oxford. He is Senior Research Officer in the African
Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,
where he was at one time a Lecturer in English.
Ursula Edmands studied at the Universities of Stellenbosch and Natal
{South Africa). After previous appointments at Rhodes University, the
University of the Witwatersrand and Leeds University, she is at present
a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Contemporary
Studies, Leeds J;'olytechnic.
David Rabkin studied at the Universities of Cape Town and Leeds.
After completing his doctoral thesis on'D rum Magazine and its Effects
on Black South African Writers', he worked as a journalist for 'The
Cape Argus', a Cape Town evening newspaper. He is at present
serving a ten-year sentence in Pretoria Central prison for 'furthering
the aims of a banned organisation' [The African National Congress of
South Africa].
Arthur Ravenscroft studied at the University of Cape Town and at
Cambridge. After previous appointments in the Universities of Cape
Town, Stellenbosch, and visiting lectureships in Africa, Europe, the
West Indies, he is at present Senior Lecturer in English Uterature,
University of Leeds, and Editor, The Journal of Commonwealth Litera
ture.
Michael Wade studied at the Universities of the Witwatersrand,
Rhodes (Grahamstown), London, and Sussex. After previous appoint
ments in the Polytechnic of North London and the University of Sussex,
he is at present Chairman of the Department of African Studies in the
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
ix
Preface
The arrival of white settlers at the Southern tip of the African continent
some three centuries ago ushered in a variety of paradoxes. The most
important of these would seem to be that despite the oppression of
Bantu by both Boer and British (whether by war, expropriation of land,
slavery, race-discrimination, or economic exploitation), South Africa
has been-and will conceivably continue to be-an interdependent,
multi-racial society. It is the implicit recognition of this reality-and,
indeed, of the desire to institutionalise it explicitly-which lies at the
heart of competing political policies and which have, in recent years,
culminated in armed struggle.
The resort to armed struggle is, itself, a recognition of another
paradox: that, when one examines the interactions between the three
dimensions of oppression in South Africa-those of race, of class, and
of nationality-one finds that a deep-seated colour prejudice, codified
into an all-embracing racism, has always been resisted by a counter
vailing radicalism which specifically rejected colour and favoured a
non-racial society. It is the extent to which South African novelists in
English have tended to be sensitive to this latter aspiration that
constitutes the core concern of this book.
There have, of course, in the past been attempts to assess the
contribution of South African novelists. Of these, the two efforts which
immediately come to mind are those of J. P. L. Snyman1 and Vladimir
Klima. 2 The former was based upon a thesis for the award of the degree
of Doctor of Literature in the University of Potchefstroom for Christian
Higher Education (my emphasis). The book contained an Introduction
by C. R. Swart, at that time the Minister of Justice {and later still, State
President of the Republic of South Africa). The imprimatur of political
orthodoxy could not have been more impeccable. As a work of literary
xi
xii THE SOUTH AFRICAN NOVEL IN ENGLISH
criticism it was, however, lacklustre: it seldom rose above a survey of
authors, titles, and plots, although it could be argued that the writer
deserved his doctorate for his tenacity in the face of so many indifferent
works by now (thankfully) out-of-print writers.
Whereas Dr Snyman's book might be described as a political
apologia disguised as criticism, Vladimir Klima's contribution could
rank as well-intentioned but essentially ignorant political involvement
masquerading as criticism. Two central assumptions underpin the
book. These are, firstly, that the' ... African viewpoint is one of the
main attributes of genuine African literature and art ... ', and, second
ly, that' ... a particular emphasis had been laid upon the works written
by the most advanced, gifted and progressive novelists, while lesser
writers and pro-apartheid authors have been paid much less attention'.
This is not the place to enter into a discussion of the view that an
'African viewpoint' is one of the main attributes of genuine African art
and literature. But, leaving aside the complexities of definition of
terminology, some of the questions which require attention would seem
to be: to what extent is there an'A frican viewpoint'? If there is, what
are its characteristics? And how, and to what extent, are these either
present or absent in the works of South African writers? To what extent
does the 'viewpoint' coincide with racial divisions? Most important,
how does this 'viewpoint' lead, it would seem, unerringly in the
direction of 'genuine' art and literature?
It is therefore a sobering experience to tum to the considered, but no
less radical or committed, views of Ezekiel Mphahlele. The African
Image'! was published originally in 1959, and recently re-issued in an
extensively revised form. While the work is not confined to South
Africa, the issues raised reflect the author's long confrontation with the
theoretical problems of the study of literature in Africa. A comparison
of, for instance, 'The African Personality' and 'What Price "Neg
ritude"?' in the original edition with 'Negritude Revisited', in the
revised edition, will reveal the nature of the search.
The recognition that the search is political as well as literary leads to
a third major paradox: that after three hundred years we are still not
sure what we are searching for. The leaders of the political struggle
would seem to be uncertain about what they are after, except in broad
outline. No-one really knows if the objective is, say, a liberal non-racial
society, a Socialist Commonwealth, a federal system of autonomous
national republics, to cite a few possible options. And it would seem
that the uncertainties of the politicians are reflected by the uncertainties
of the novelists, who, in their tum, reflect the confusion of the peoples of