Introduction David Attwell and Derek Attridge; Part I. Oratures, Oral Histories, Origins: 1. 'The Bushmen's Letters': |Xam narratives of the Bleek and Lloyd Collection and their afterlives Hedley Twidle; 2. A contextual analysis of Xhosa iimbongi and their izibongo Russell H. Kaschula; 3. I sing of the woes of my travels: the lifela of Lesotho Nhlanhla Maake; 4. Praise, politics, performance: from Zulu izibongo to the Zionists Mbongiseni Buthelezi; 5. IsiNdebele, siSwati, Northern Sotho, Tshivenda and Xitsonga oral culture Manie Groenewald and Mokgale Makgopa; Part II. Exploration, Early Modernity and Enlightenment at the Cape, 1488¿1820: 6. Shades of Adamastor: the legacy of The Lusiads Malvern van Wyk Smith; 7. In the archive: records of the Dutch settlement and the contemporary novel Carli Coetzee; 8. Eighteenth-century natural history, travel writing and South African literary historiography Ian Glenn; Part III. Empire, Resistance and National Beginnings, 1820¿1910: 9. Writing settlement and empire: the Cape after 1820 Matthew Shum; 10. The mission presses and the rise of black journalism Catherine Woeber; 11. The imperial romance Laura Chrisman; 12. Perspectives on the South African War Elleke Boehmer; 13. The beginnings of Afrikaans literature H. P. van Coller; Part IV. Modernism and Trans-National Culture, 1910¿1948: 14. Black writers and the historical novel: 1907¿1948 Bhekizizwe Peterson; 15. The Dertigers and the plaasroman: two brief perspectives on Afrikaans literature Gerrit Olivier; 16. New African modernity and the New African movement Ntongela Masilela; 17. Refracted modernisms: Roy Campbell, Herbert Dhlomo, N. P. van Wyk Louw Tony Voss; 18. The metropolitan and local: Douglas Blackburn, Pauline Smith, William Plomer and Herman Charles Bosman Craig MacKenzie; Part V. Apartheid and Its Aftermath, 1948¿the Present: 19. The Fabulous Fifties: short fiction in English Dorothy Driver; 20. Writing in exile Tlhalo Raditlhalo; 21. Afrikaans literature 1948¿1976 Hein Willemse; 22. Afrikaans literature after 1976: resistances and repositionings Louise Viljoen; 23. The liberal tradition in fiction Peter Blair; 24. Black Consciousness poetry: writing against apartheid Thengani H. Ngwenya; 25. Popular forms and the United Democratic Front Peter Horn; 26. Writing the prison Daniel Roux; 27. Theatre: regulation, resistance and recovery Loren Kruger; 28. The lyric poem during and after apartheid Dirk Klopper; 29. Writing and publication in African languages since 1948 Christiaan Swanepoel; 30. Writing the interregnum: literature and the demise of apartheid Stephen Clingman; 31. Rewriting the nation Rita Barnard; 32. Writing the city after apartheid Michael Titlestad; Part VI. South African Literature: Continuities and Contrasts: 33. South Africa in the global imaginary Andrew van der Vlies; 34. Confession and autobiography M. J. Daymond and Andries Visagie; 35. 'A change of tongue': questions of translation Leon de Kock; 36. Writing women Meg Samuelson; 37. The 'experimental line' in fiction Michael Green; 38. The book in South Africa Peter D. McDonald; 39. Literary and cultural criticism in South Africa David Johnson; Index.