WRITING BLACK - Softcover

Rive, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0864867808 ISBN 13: 9780864867803

Publisher: New Africa, 2024

Synopsis

Radical, rambunctious and ever perceptive - Richard Rive's WRITING BLACK is the autobiography of one of South Africa's most-missed intellectuals. From his beginnings in Cape Town's vibrant and tumultuous District Six, to his later acclaim as a writer and academic - WRITING BLACK records the development of an uncommon brilliance that emerged during the height of South Africa's political turmoil.
The momentum gained from his early scholarly success took Rive across the world, to study and teach at some of the world's most illustrious centres of learning. A Fulbright Scholar at both the post-graduate and post-doctoral levels, Rive's career brought him into contact with black writers and thinkers at the height of global acclaim - great minds such as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Wole Soyinka.
As such, WRITING BLACK is not just an account of the ebb and flow of a prodigious literary life, but also a wide-ranging portrait of some of the African continent's most important and influential literary movements. A portrayal of literary history lived first-hand by one of its ideological fulcrums; this is an essential read for enthusiasts of South African literature and politics alike.





'I cannot be what the propounders of negritude, or the "African Personality Cult, would have me be. I am Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. I am Langa, Chatsworth and Bonteheuwel. I am urban South Africa.'

'If any one figure will be figure will become larger than the rest, it could be that extraordinary person of many talents, who was able to create out of the debris of wilful and deliberate denigration and emasculation, works of erudition and beauty.'

Richard Rive

'...one of the first South African writers to examine what it means to be of mixed race in a rigid dualistic society.' THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Edition details

• Publisher: New Africa
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0864867808
• ISBN 13: 9780864867803
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 308