Skin Tight: Apartheid Literary Culture and its Aftermath, by Louise Bethlehem (used)

What is the role of literature in contexts of severe political oppression and resistance? Skin Tight: Apartheid Literary Culture and its Aftermath traces the responses to this question provided by the emergent paradigm of South African literary studies from the 1970s onwards. Embedded in the influential critical texts of the field, it claims, are hidden narratives– of land, race, gender, desire and embodiment. This volume explores these submerged dimensions of South African literary history and the influence they continue to exert well into the post-apartheid era. It suggests that significant continuities exist between late-apartheid and post-apartheid literary culture, and positions these against the interpretive horizon of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Skin Tight uses the tools of postcolonial theory and gender studies to deepen understanding of the relationship between resistance and representation, between textual culture and the textuality of culture in a situation of deep political saturation. It has important lessons for readers interested in South African literature and culture, literary theory, cultural studies and gender.

Condition: good