Overview

This book appraises André Brink's reputation as an internationally acclaimed commentator on the enormities of the apartheid state and one of South Africa's foremost novelists. Highlighting Brink's enduring meditation on the writer's responsibility to a society in a state of moral and political siege and his exemplary position in the interrogation of the subtle discursive strategies of the apartheid establishment, it refers extensively to Brink's oeuvre, but focuses mainly on his first seven novels in English: The Ambassadors, Looking on Darkness, An Instant in the Wind, Rumours of Rain, A Dry White Season, A Chain of Voices and The Wall of the Plague. Aimed primarily at students of South Africa, it draws on postcolonial theory to examine the ideological implications of the Western aesthetic and intellectual background that nurtured Brink's imagination, his fixation with the tragic vision, Christian theology, and existentialism, in the context of his professed political affiliations.

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9781527516274

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Reviews

Isidore Diala has written an invaluable study on the writing of Andre Brink in which he ranges with ease between the various intellectual, literary, and philosophical influences on the writer to significant shifts in contemporary literary discourse. It is an admirable accomplishment. Hein WillemseProfessor of Literature, University of Pretoria, South Africa; University of Ghent, Belgium Andre Brink's work is often celebrated for its resistance against apartheid and for the ways in which his oeuvre demonstrates how ideology is entrenched in language. In this creative and thorough study of Brink's novels, Isidore Diala reaches beyond, indicating how Brink reforms language in order to break conformist political and religious norms. He also points out that Brink wanted to avoid the dangers of counterhegemonic writing becoming implicated in the discursive structures it opposes. His thorough analysis of Brink's roots in existential thought, especially the Sisyphus myth and his creative reading of some of Brink's characters as manifestations of Tom O'Bedlam, provides a timely and significant contribution to Brink studies that will set the standard for some time. Willie BurgerProfessor of Literature and Literary Theory, University of Pretoria, South Africa

""Isidore Diala has written an invaluable study on the writing of André Brink in which he ranges with ease between the various intellectual, literary, and philosophical influences on the writer to significant shifts in contemporary literary discourse. It is an admirable accomplishment.""Hein WillemseProfessor of Literature, University of Pretoria, South Africa; University of Ghent, Belgium ""André Brink's work is often celebrated for its resistance against apartheid and for the ways in which his oeuvre demonstrates how ideology is entrenched in language. In this creative and thorough study of Brink's novels, Isidore Diala reaches beyond, indicating how Brink reforms language in order to break conformist political and religious norms. He also points out that Brink wanted to avoid the dangers of counterhegemonic writing becoming implicated in the discursive structures it opposes. His thorough analysis of Brink's roots in existential thought, especially the Sisyphus myth and his creative reading of some of Brink's characters as manifestations of Tom O'Bedlam, provides a timely and significant contribution to Brink studies that will set the standard for some time.""Willie BurgerProfessor of Literature and Literary Theory, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Author Information

Educated at Abia State University, Uturu, and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, Isidore Diala currently teaches in the Department of English and Literary Studies at Imo State University, Nigeria. He has published primarily in the area of African literature.

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