Sindiwe Magona and the Power of Paradox: Challenging the Polarization of South African Discourse (Routledge Studies in African Literature) - Hardcover

Schatteman, Renée

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1032598603 ISBN 13: 9781032598604

Publisher: Routledge, 2024

Synopsis

This book examines the work of Sindiwe Magona, one of South Africa’s most prolific and groundbreaking writers, widely recognized for highlighting the everyday experiences of women and the domestic side of apartheid. A pioneer among black African women writers, she is equally respected as storyteller, advocate for children’s education, activist for HIV/AIDS awareness, and champion of indigenous languages. In this book, Renée Schatteman contends that Magona’s most important contribution comes through her refusal to choose sides in the contentious debates that have polarized public discourse following apartheid. By straddling two (or more) sides of a controversy and challenging any who do harm to others (and to the nation), regardless of their position, she blurs distinctions that are assumed to be absolute, opens new avenues of understanding, and inspires alternative visions for the future. By occupying the space of paradox, she undermines the closed epistemological structures inherited from apartheid and champions the need for interdependence, truth-telling, and dialogue. Covering her creative production over three decades (which includes novels, autobiographies and biographies, short story collections, children’s books, and literature about HIV/AIDS), this book is an essential read for Magona enthusiasts as well as for researchers of African literature and postcolonial South Africa.

About this title

About the Author

Renée Schatteman is an associate professor of World Anglophone Literature at Georgia State University in Atlanta and the editor of Sindiwe Magona’s essay collection, I Write the Yawning Void (Wits University Press, 2023).

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1032598603
• ISBN 13: 9781032598604
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 238