South African London

To read South African writing about London is to study the development of South African literature, and culture more broadly, in relation to one of the most important geographical touchstones within the South African imaginary. What the South African literary texts about London analysed in this valuable new study have in common is that they respond to the apartheid context, displaced to a non-South African location that is a significant site of South African exile and emigration. Travel to London afforded South African writers opportunities to rethink ideas about Englishness and also forged fresh engagements with South African subjectivities. South African London uncovers a range of diverse and fascinating responses by South African writers that provide nuanced perspectives on exile, global racisms and modernity. This book presents innovative and unexpected angles on major South African writers, such as Peter Abrahams, Dan Jacobson, Noni Jabavu, Todd Matshikiza, Arthur Nortje, Lauretta Ngcobo, J.M.Coetzee, Justin Cartwright, and Ishtiyaq Shukri and includes genres from life writing to novels and poetry. Since South African London considers the dual locations of London and South Africa alongside each other, it offers a refracted history of postwar London that emphasises the transnational networks of the city and the worldliness of South African letters.