African Literature And Intellectual Histories

Professor Ntongela Masilela (1948–2020) is recognised as one of South Africa’s most eminent scholars, and his highly respected and meticulous contributions to local and global intellectual discourse, most significantly via his historical archive, offer essential insights into disciplines such as literature, film, arts, and political and intellectual history.

The book comprises essays by Masilela; each of which is prefaced by an introduction by the volume editor. The essays contain Masilela’s most significant writings and illuminate the essence and breadth of his gifted mastery of the aforementioned disciplines; a mastery that he deployed in service of elucidating both the intellectual contributions of others – most notably the members of the New African Movement – and the interconnectedness of people, body politics, events and ideologies across time and space. In this way, the book befittingly presents Masilela as a widely read and travelled scholar, who scoured the national archive to unpack the most intricate aspects of our history and its interconnectedness with the history of the world.

The essays further showcase Masilela’s historico-biographical approach in their exploration of three key periods: the diaspora (exile), the interregnum, and post-apartheid South Africa, as well as offer us an advanced understanding of the locus that drove the works of others, such as Bernard M. Magubane, H.I.E. Dhlomo and Nadine Gordimer.

In so doing, Masilela brings to life both prominent and lesser-known African intellectuals by engaging with their archives in a manner that empowers the reader to appreciate also the value of biographical sketches. His treatment of race, language, culture and indeed literature itself is not just theoretic but verges on the dramatic, and thereby he gives these paths of inquiry both life and contemporaneity. Further, there is an ongoing debate in contemporary Africa about “what is South African literature”, “what is national liberation” and “what are the markers of a successful post-colonial state”. The book will enrich these debates, which are sometimes stylised and conducted without historical context.

The transdisciplinary nature of the book enables it to serve as reference material across various disciplines in the global south and the global north Therefore, itt will be of interest to readers of political and intellectual history, cultural (arts and film) studies, literature, political science and diaspora studies.