' South Africa: it's possible ' slogan is very courageous of the official site of South Africa. It implicitly recognizes that going to South Africa does not come naturally ( is Not self-evident ) ...
The brutal murder last week, the most prominent representative of nostalgia for apartheid, Eugene Terreblanche - Huguenot ancestors (click the title of this post for details) - has revived fears real that the country is far from pacified.
But how would he, after decades of unspeakable atrocities? The South African democracy is young and fragile (I remind you that the first democratic elections were held 16 years ago ...).
This month I suggest you read a novel written by a great South African writer, JM Coetzee, Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. He is very discreet, which abhors interviews and which we know little: he was born in 1940, has worked as a professor of literature at Cape Town and, like many of his fellow whites, eventually leaving South Africa for Australia in 2002. He never defended apartheid, on the contrary, but has never taken sides for movement whatsoever. Here's an article in the magazine ' Time ' said about him (October 2003):
' Coetzee Will Be Remembered For Something Quite simple: Was a writer here Who Described, More Than Any Other Truly, What It Was To Be In The conscious and white face of apartheid's stupidities and cruelties . "
' Disgrace ' by JM Coetzee (1999 - 220 pages )
The brutal murder last week, the most prominent representative of nostalgia for apartheid, Eugene Terreblanche - Huguenot ancestors (click the title of this post for details) - has revived fears real that the country is far from pacified.
But how would he, after decades of unspeakable atrocities? The South African democracy is young and fragile (I remind you that the first democratic elections were held 16 years ago ...).
This month I suggest you read a novel written by a great South African writer, JM Coetzee, Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. He is very discreet, which abhors interviews and which we know little: he was born in 1940, has worked as a professor of literature at Cape Town and, like many of his fellow whites, eventually leaving South Africa for Australia in 2002. He never defended apartheid, on the contrary, but has never taken sides for movement whatsoever. Here's an article in the magazine ' Time ' said about him (October 2003):
' Coetzee Will Be Remembered For Something Quite simple: Was a writer here Who Described, More Than Any Other Truly, What It Was To Be In The conscious and white face of apartheid's stupidities and cruelties . "
' Disgrace ' by JM Coetzee (1999 - 220 pages )
Minimum level required: B2 (to determine your level of reading, see the pages of June 09 of this Blog )
The novel sparked a real controversy in South Africa, probably because he was an early stage the dismay of the minority white when it loses its supremacy in the new Africa South. We follow the long descent into hell of a university professor anniversary, lonely and disillusioned, and her daughter, a kind of easygoing hippie (is that a tautology?) In which he believes he can find refuge ...
Uh ... no, with JM Coetzee, it is expected a good episode of brute violence, which leaves the reader KO ( knocked-out ). In the view of many critics, the Nobel Prize in Literature has just reward postmodern writing in a very controlled apparent simplicity. Choosing rare among English writers, the narrative of ' Disgrace is written in simple present, giving the reader an immediacy hanging until the last page.
sensitive souls, do not refrain: you will miss an incredible reading experience. Discovery and behind the scenes of the 'Rainbow Nation'.
Uh ... no, with JM Coetzee, it is expected a good episode of brute violence, which leaves the reader KO ( knocked-out ). In the view of many critics, the Nobel Prize in Literature has just reward postmodern writing in a very controlled apparent simplicity. Choosing rare among English writers, the narrative of ' Disgrace is written in simple present, giving the reader an immediacy hanging until the last page.
sensitive souls, do not refrain: you will miss an incredible reading experience. Discovery and behind the scenes of the 'Rainbow Nation'.
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