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

Abstract

Summary 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 dramatize this phenomenon. Translations of popular local works, the prominence of women authors, introduction of elements of oral narrative, the innovative use of folk tales as well as topical matters and historical facts in stylized 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.