Assimilation and Transformation of African and European Literary Traditions in the Present Day South African Novel

Abstract

It is argued that texts published in South Africa during the past five years are a literary reflection of transcultural movements characteristic of the South African socio-political scene today. Throughout the broad spectrum of South African literature, key motifs and themes recur which dramatise this phenomenon. Translations of popular local works, the prominence of women authors, the introduction of elements of oral narrative, and the innovative use of folk tales as well as topical matters and historical facts in stylised form are but a · few of the manifestations suggesting the emergence of a common South African trait in what has always been an extremely fragmented literary world.

Opsomming
Die argument in hierdie beskouing is dat werke wat die afgelope vyf jaar in Suid-Afrika gepubliseer is, op literêre wyse die transkulturele aard van die hedendaagse sosiopoli­tieke toneel reflekteer. Oor die hele spektrum van die Suid-Afrikaanse letterkunde kom daar sekere sleutelmotiewe en temas voor wat so 'n verskynsel verbeeld. Die toe­nemende vertaling van gewilde werke vir die plaaslike mark, die prominente rol van vroulike outeurs, die ontginning van orale vertellelemente, en die gebruikmaking van sprokies, maar ook van aktuele en historiese feite, suggereer almal hierdie nuwe gemeenskaplik­heid binne 'n literêre wêreld wat nog altyd tradisioneel inherent verdeeld en gefragmen­teerd was.