Selves in Question

by Coullie, Judith Lutege; Meyer, Stephan; Ngwenya, Thengani H.; Olver, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780824830045
• ISBN10: 0824830040
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-01
• Publisher: Univ of Hawaii Pr

Summary

The Institute of Postcolonial Studies is an autonomous educational institution located in Melbourne, Australia. It has linkages to major universities and research bodies both in Australia and internationally. The Institute's book series Writing Past Colonialism aims to communicate the unique intellectual excitement and academic excellence that characterize the Institute to a broader global constituency. The leitmotiv of the series is the idea of difference--"differences between culture and politics, as well as differences in ways of seeing and the sources that can be drawn upon. In this sense, the series is postcolonial. Yet the space the Institute hopes to open up is one resistant to new orthodoxies, one that allows for alternative and contesting formulations.Though grounded in studies relating to the formerly colonized world, the series seeks to extend contemporary global analyses.Wide-ranging and engaging, Selves in Question considers the various ways in which auto/biographical accounts situate and question the self in contemporary southern Africa.

Table of Contents

I Introduction
Auto/biographical Identities: Placing Selves in Question	1	(9)
Auto/biographical Accounts in South Africa in Three Parts	10	(28)
Thematic and Theoretical Issues in Southern African Auto/biography: An Overview	38	(24)
Scope of the Collection	62	(21)
Bibliography	83	(34)
II Singing the Praises, Performing the Persona
Versions of a Life in Poetry
D.L.P. Yali-Manisi interviewed by Jeff Opland	117	(15)
People Feel No Event Is Complete without a Poet
Zolani Mkiva interviewed by Duncan Brown and Susan Kiguli	132	(16)
Folk Music as Popular Culture: A Life-history Approach
Alex J. Thembela interviewed by Thengani Ngwenya	148	(5)
III Representing Silence
I Speak Their Wordless Woe
Dennis Brutus interviewed by Simon Lewis	153	(7)
Making History's Silences Speak
N. Chabani Manganyi interviewed by Thengani Ngwenya	160	(13)
IV Relating the Self
Creating a Climate for Change
Elsa Joubert interviewed by Stephan Meyer	173	(13)
This Miracle of a Book...It's Just Like the Bible to Me
Mpho Nthunya and K. Limakatso Kendall interviewed by Vanessa Farr	186	(14)
Collaborators
Wilfred Cibane and Robert Scott interviewed by Thengani Ngwenya	200	(5)
The Making of Katie Makanya
Margaret McCord interviewed by Thengani Ngwenya	205	(8)
V Fact or Fiction
All Autobiography Is Autre-biography
J. M. Coetzee interviewed by David Attwell	213	(6)
We Would Write Very Dull Books If We Just Wrote about Ourselves
Sindiwe Magona interviewed by Stephan Meyer	219	(12)
Writing Autobiography and Writing Fiction
Doris Lessing interviewed by M.J. Daymond	231	(12)
VI Subject to Metaphor
Metaphors of Self
Es'kia Mphahlele interviewed by N. Chabani Manganyi	243	(11)
Aquifers and Auto/biography in Namibia
Dorian Haarhoff interviewed by Terence Zeeman	254	(15)
Reflections on Identity
Breyten Breytenbach interviewed by Marilet Sienaert	269	(8)
Rhythmic Redoublings
Rob Nixon interviewed by Sarah Nuttall and Cheryl-Ann Michael	277	(14)
VII From Daughters to Mothers
"Mummy, the Coolie Doctor Is at the Door"
Vanitha Chetty interviewed by Judith Lütge Coullie	291	(12)
Why Do You Abandon Me? I Am Your Daughter. Re-presenting Dona Ermelinda
Ester Lee interviewed by Duncan Cartwright	303	(12)
Every Secret Thing as Family Memoir
Gillian Slovo interviewed by Margaretta Jolly	315	(14)
VIII Disarming White Men
White Men with Weapons: Performing Autobiography
Greig Coetzee interviewed by Debbie Lütge	329	(16)
Reflections in a Cracked Mirror
Pieter-Dirk Uys interviewed by Mervyn McMurty	345	(12)
IX Commemoration, Confession, Conversion
These Two Autobiographical Books Are My Identity Document
David Wolpe interviewed by Astrid Starck	357	(9)
Philosophical Reflections on Chronicles of Conversion
Wilhelm Verwoerd interviewed by Stephan Meyer	366	(13)
X Confessing Sexualities
Speaking about Writing about Living a Life
Stephen Gray interviewed by Judith Lütge Coullie	379	(16)
Man-bitch: Poetry, Prose, and Prostitution
Johan van Wyk interviewed by Judith Lütge Coullie	395	(14)
XI Re-collecting the New Nation
Group Portrait: Self, Family, and Nation on Exhibit
Paul Faber, Rayda Jacobs, and David Goldblatt interviewed by Stephan Meyer	409	(27)
Resituating Ourselves: Homelessness and Collective Testimony as Narrative Therapy
Valentine Cascarino and Jonathan Morgan interviewed by Sam Raditlhalo	436	(15)
Glossary	451	(6)
Contributors	457	(12)
Index	469