A dialectical literary canon
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6030628 |
|---|---|
| Authors | H G Toth (0000-0003-2865-7162, University of Leeds, corresponding author), Brendon Nicholls (0000-0003-3238-7695, University of Leeds) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 41-63 |
| Publication date | 2020-04-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Identities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1472-5843 • E-ISSN: 1472-5851 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14725843.2020.1773761 |
| OpenAlex | W3036653531 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 24 |
This article proposes a literary canon founded on dialectical principles, using South Africa as our historical example. In order to do so, we first trace the development of dialectical thought, moving from Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to Karl Marx to Steve Biko; from Eurocentrism to class consciousness to Black Consciousness. Second, we plot the influence of Hegel and Marx as well as Sartre and Fanon on Biko’s elaboration of dialectics for the Black Consciousness Movement. Third, and in response to Marxist critiques of Black Consciousness, we register the moment of class consciousness that underpins Biko’s politics, especially his critique of institutions. Finally, and based on our exposition of Biko’s reading of Hegel via Marx and Sartre, we suggest a ‘polythetic’ dialectic to rework the post-Apartheid literary canon and to accommodate intersectional complexity within it. The canon, in our model, does not emerge from a settled consensus, but instead re-coalesces on every occasion that it is submitted to contestation or is approached via conflicts in the social. A transitive or dialectical canon might variously retain or negate institutionally-privileged texts while still making them momentarily visible via the ‘popular’ traditions of struggle that contest institutional privilege
Aesthetics · Art · Class conflict · Class consciousness · Consciousness · Dialectic · Epistemology · Hegelianism · Literature · Marxist philosophy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Law · Philosophy · South African History and Culture
The Invention of Africa
A Hegel Dictionary
Fees Must Fall
Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Hegel and Colonialism
The Old New Black Poetry
My Blackness is the Beauty of this Land”
Miriam Tlali and Ravan Press
Black Consciousness in Dialogue in South Africa
Hegel and Haiti
Azikwelwa' (We Will Not Ride)
Inventing Africa in the Twentieth Century
| Citations per year | 0.04 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2003 - 2003 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |