This rich volume is dedicated to the astounding South African writer and literary critic Lewis Nkosi (1936–2010). In this book, Nkosi’s celebrated one-act play “The Black Psychiatrist” is published together with its unpublished sequel “Flying Home,” a play on the satirically fictionalized inauguration of Mandela as South African president. Critical appraisals, tributes and recollections by scholars and friends reflect on the beat of his writing and life. An ideal volume for those encountering Lewis Nkosi for the first time as well as for those already devoted to his work. Edited by Astrid Starck, a literary scholar, and Dag Henrichsen, a historian. “Much has happened to me that is worth narrating, worth celebrating, in spite of the regrets and sorrows of exile. My life began under Apartheid until I attained the age of 22, and then subsequently lived in many places and societies, in Central Africa, Britain, the United States, Poland, and during a brief sojourn, in France and, finally, in Switzerland.” Lewis Nkosi in „Memoirs of a motherless child“

Lewis Nkosi's influence as both a South African writer and critic has been profound. His significance stems from the fact that he was one of the very few surviving members of the Drum generation of writers of the 1950s; one who continued to write throughout the apartheid and post-apartheid decades. As an author of plays, critical essays, and novels, Nkosi's voice is preserved in Letters to My Native Soil, which collects correspondence between the writer and others, and provides a valuable insight into a working writer's life in Europe and at home. The book is illustrated with personal photographs and accompanied by Nkosi's own work in the form of appendices. (Series: African Languages - African Literatures. Langues Africaines - Litteratures Africaines - Vol. 6)

This rich volume is dedicated to the astounding South African writer and literary critic Lewis Nkosi (19362010). In this book, Nkosis celebrated one-act play The Black Psychiatrist is published together with its unpublished sequel Flying Home, a play on the satirically fictionalized inauguration of Mandela as South African president. Critical appraisals, tributes and recollections by scholars and friends reflect on the beat of his writing and life. An ideal volume for those encountering Lewis Nkosi for the first time as well as for those already devoted to his work.

The novel tells the story, in the first person, of a young black male ex-student's obsession with a young English woman, Veronica Slater, whom he encounters on the segregated Durban beachfront. It is the heyday of apartheid. Although not a word is exchanged, a strong erotic bond develops between the two of them, culminating in what is later seen as a rape and for which the narrator gets the death sentence. In an absolute tour de force the narrator, only ever referred to as Mr Sibiya, waiting to be executed, writes down his story - reconstructing bit by bit not only his own and a brief history of his family, but also his obsession with the white girl, the court proceedings, and his encounters with Dr Dufre, a Swiss criminologist who has been granted permission of compile a dossier of the case. One of the most remarkable things about the novel is the narrator's ability to be objective, to view himself and the series of events almost dispassionately.

The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing provides a comprehensive historical overview of the diverse literary traditions impacting on this field's evolution, from the eighteenth century to the present. Drawing on the expertise of over forty international experts, this book gathers innovative scholarship to look forward to new readings and perspectives, while also focusing on undervalued writers, texts, and research areas. Creating new pathways to engage with the naming of a field that has often been contested, readings of literary texts are interwoven throughout with key political, social, and material contexts. In making visible the diverse influences constituting past and contemporary British literary culture, this Cambridge History makes a unique contribution to British, Commonwealth, postcolonial, transnational, diasporic, and global literary studies, serving both as one of the first major reference works to cover four centuries of black and Asian British literary history and as a compass for future scholarship.

Covers English literature and post/colonial literature in English, in 20th century South Africa.