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 The New Century of South African Short Stories is a major, new
anthology which revisits our storytelling from a ‘post-apartheid'
perspective.
The selection ranges from San and
African oral tales to contemporary works. Acknowledged talents like Pauline Smith,
Herman Charles Bosman, Can Themba, Nadine Gordimer, Abraham H de Vries and
Hennie Aucamp share the pages with story writers from the recent past including
H I E Dhlomo and Alex La Guma, and with
writers from the present day: Ahmed
Essop, Njabulo S Ndebele, Peter Wilhelm, Antjie Krog and Zoë Wicomb, among
them. Translations - many especially
commissioned for this anthology - ensure representation in English of South
Africa's cultural diversity.
From Bosman's classic ‘Oom
Schalk' yarns to Casey Motsisi's shebeen sketches, from the San storyteller
//Kabbo for whom ‘a story is like the wind' to Gordimer's bizarre version of a
children's tale ‘Once upon a Time', The
New Century of South African Short Stories conveys the perennial
fascination of the story in all of our lives.
Story - Michael Chapman says in
his Introduction - is this country's most lively, various and accessible form
of literary expression. Whereas the
novel captured the big theme of apartheid, the story in its surprising
flexibility is suited to a society that suddenly has to reinvent itself: to retell its story, or stories. Or to find new stories.
Compiler of the companion
anthology, The New Century of South
African Poetry (2003), Michael Chapman is professor of English at the University
of KwaZulu-Natal. His numerous publications include A Century of South African Poetry
(1981), The Drum Decade: Stories from the
1950s (1989; 2002) and Southern African Literatures (1996; 2003).
Ad Donker Publishers
An imprint of
Jonathan Ball
Publishers (Pty) Ltd
ISBN 0 86852 227 9
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