Book Review: Losing the Plot. Crime, reality and fiction in postapartheid writing

Naidu, Samantha

Title: Book Review: Losing the Plot. Crime, reality and fiction in postapartheid writing
Creator: Naidu, Samantha
Date Issued: 2017
Date: 2017
Type: text
Type: article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124942
Identifier: vital:35712
Identifier: https://dx.doi.org/10.17159/tvl.v.54i2.2980
Description: In this wide-ranging and impressive ac¬count of postapartheid writing, De Kock describes the “dizzingly heterogeneous corpus” (1) of South African literature after apartheid with the aim of describing its distinctive features and complexity. The methodology is straightforward. De Kock has chosen to read particular liter¬ary works in order to identify broader ideas and trends. To contextualise the study, De Kock deploys the key, perva¬sive notion of “transition”. The notion is variously defined as a “transformative shift from one ‘state’ to another” (2), a “popular mythology” in the “collective consciousness” (3), and as containing a counter-discourse of disillusionment or disorientation, which De Kock refers to as “‘plot loss’” (3). This “plot loss” becomes a central trope in the book to express the social and political chaos of the country, evident in various criminal manifestations of neo-colonialism such as neo-liberal economic policies, new forms of racism, and corruption.
Format: 3 pages
Format: pdf
Language: English
Relation: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
Relation: Naidu, S., 2017. Book Review: Losing the Plot. Crime, Reality and Fiction in Postapartheid Writing. Tydskrif vir letterkunde, 54(2), pp.180-182
Relation: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde volume 54 number 2 180 182 2017 2309-9070
Rights: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Open Access Policy

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Naidu, Sam (Prof)

RU Department of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies

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