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9781683932451

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The Gothic genre has become extremely popular in South Africa since apartheid. Joseph-Vilai maintains that the eerie and disturbing qualities of Gothic writing express the anxieties of a troubled society, and she makes a strong case... Especially interesting is the author's discussion of the Gothic transformation of a keystone of South African white writing, the farm novel. The last and most original chapter, Non-Places, looks at science fiction and dystopian writing. Joseph-Vilain concedes that she is not a South African, but points out that an outsider can have special insights. She interrogates the explosively problematic term white with insight, and she skillfully balances theory and close reading. Including an extensive bibliography, helpful notes, and a thorough index, this will be an useful resource for those interested in South African writing. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty.-- Choice

"The Gothic genre has become extremely popular in South Africa since apartheid. Joseph-Vilai maintains that the eerie and disturbing qualities of Gothic writing express the anxieties of a troubled society, and she makes a strong case... Especially interesting is the author's discussion of the Gothic transformation of a keystone of South African white writing, the ""farm novel."" The last and most original chapter, ""Non-Places,"" looks at science fiction and dystopian writing. Joseph-Vilain concedes that she is not a South African, but points out that an outsider can have special insights. She interrogates the explosively problematic term ""white"" with insight, and she skillfully balances theory and close reading. Including an extensive bibliography, helpful notes, and a thorough index, this will be an useful resource for those interested in South African writing. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty. -- ""Choice Reviews"" This is a most timely and elucidating work, lucid in exposition and wide ranging in its target texts as well as its theoretical underpinning. The book reads informatively even to somebody not in the first instance engaged by the Gothic as a genre or temper, and, as I have attempted to highlight, its wider import is in the critical study and exposition of South African landscapes. It is up to date, introduces the reader to contemporary white and English (and, obliquely, Afrikaans) authors. It grows out of the pioneering White Writing (1988) of Coetzee, without falling into its shadow. And its author makes a persuasive and closely argued case for the impress of the Gothic upon recent literary production in South Africa. -- ""French Studies in Southern Africa"""

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Mélanie Joseph-Vilain is professor of postcolonial literatures and head of the research team “Individu et nation” for the TIL Research Center at the University of Burgundy in Dijon.

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