Changing social consciousness in the South African English novel after World War II, with special reference to Peter Abrahams, Alan Paton, Es'kia Mphahlele and Nadine Gordimer
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Authors
Paasche, Karin Ilona Mary
Issue Date
1992-11
Type
Dissertation
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
The changing social consciousness in South Africa during the twentieth century falls within a
political-historical framework of events: amongst others, World Wars I and II; the institution of the
Apartheid Laws in 1948; the declaration of a South African Republic in 1960; Nelson Mandela's release in
1992. The literary social consciousness of Abrahams, Paton, Mphahlele and Gordimer spans the time
before and after 1948. Their novels reflect the changing reality of a country whose racial and social
problems both pre-date and will outlive the apartheid ideology. These and other novelists' changing social
consciousness is an indication of the development of attitudes and reactions to issues which have their
roots in the human and in the economic spheres, as well as in the political, cultural and religious. Their
work interprets the history and the change in the South African social consciousness, and also gives some
indication of a possible future vision.
Description
Citation
Paasche, Karin Ilona Mary (1992) Changing social consciousness in the South African English novel after World War II, with special reference to Peter Abrahams, Alan Paton, Es'kia Mphahlele and Nadine Gordimer, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/15727>