Introduction

Abstract

Abstract This Introduction uses Nadine Gordimer’s definition of the short story as a ‘flash of fireflies’ as the starting point for a discussion of the monograph’s core thematic concerns and key theoretical engagements. After assessing the importance of the short story in South Africa and other postcolonial contexts—notwithstanding the form’s status as ‘minor genre’—this Introduction outlines the debate in South African letters around the aesthetics of Black protest writing in the wake of Njabulo Ndebele’s critical interventions. It also addresses the generic hybridity of some of the short stories considered, arguing that their proximity to literary journalism and their realist style should be considered as integrated aesthetic dimensions of the South African short story in English by Black writers.