Literature, politics and universalism

A debate between Es'kia Mphahlele and J.M. Coetzee

Dados Bibliográficos

ID20156587
AutoresLeon De Kock (0000-0003-3717-4517, University of South Africa, autor correspondente)
Ano1987
Volume3
Fascículo4
Páginas35-48
Data de publicação1987-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Literary Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0256-4718 • E-ISSN: 1753-5387
EditoraUnisa Press (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.1080/02564718708529840
OpenAlexW2054252850
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas6

A debate is constructed in the field of South African literary aesthetics between Es'kia Mphahlele's “African humanism” and J.M. Coetzee's” post‐modernist practice. The two writers are linked by their approach to the “problem” of creative writing in South Africa in relation to political factors. Where Mphahlele makes a distinction of value between “local” and “transcendental” forms of expression, arguing that political constraints prevent South African writing from transcending the “tyranny of place”, Coetzee regards the local/universal polarity as an ideologically loaded construct within which a certain order of terms are subservient. For Coetzee, dealing with politics must first be addressed at the level of the politics of writing, while Mphahlele situates the “problem” of politics outside the sphere of lanugage

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Humanism · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · Transcendental number · Universalism · African cultural and philosophical studies · Law · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · South African History and Culture