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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Sophiatown Writers of the Fifties: The Unreal Reality of Their World |
Author: | Gready, Paul |
Year: | 1990 |
Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies |
Volume: | 16 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | March |
Pages: | 139-164 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | writers townships literature Literature, Mass Media and the Press |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636643 |
Abstract: | In Sophiatown, a freehold area situated four miles from the centre of Johannesburg, a generation of writers came to maturity soon after the National Party gained power in 1948. These authors - Mphahlele, Maimane, Matshikiza, Modisane, Themba, Nakasa, Motsisi and Nkosi - referred to as the 'Sophiatown set', all lived in Sophiatown at various stages during the fifties. This paper describes the significance and tragedy of Sophiatown in the period 1948-1959 and touches upon the following issues: the role of 'Drum', a magazine which, virtually entirely written by the Sophiatown set, represented black literature in English in South Africa for almost a decade; the use of English as a unifying force; the interracial frontier and its varying black, white, and collaborative literary outputs, amongst others in theatre and musicals; the Sophiatown writers' (lack of) political commitment; and the socioeconomic and political context in which gangsterism and crime flourished. In 1959 Sophiatown was pulled down. Almost all writers chose exile. A number of them wrote their autobiography, in which they attempted to capture the magic of the Sophiatown that was. Notes, ref. |