Literature and the Law in South Africa, 1910–2010: The Long Walk to Artistic Freedom

Author:   Ted Laros
Publisher:   Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
ISBN:  

9781683930150


Pages:   242
Publication Date:   29 December 2017
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Literature and the Law in South Africa, 1910–2010: The Long Walk to Artistic Freedom


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Author:   Ted Laros
Publisher:   Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Imprint:   Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.00cm , Height: 2.60cm , Length: 23.60cm
Weight:   0.458kg
ISBN:  

9781683930150


ISBN 10:   1683930150
Pages:   242
Publication Date:   29 December 2017
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Literature in Law Part I: Legal Groundwork, 1910-55 Chapter One: Preparing the Ground for Autonomization Part II: Hesitant Legal Recognition, 1955-75 Chapter Two: The 1965 Trials: Wilbur Smith's When the Lion Feeds andCan Themba's The Fugitives Chapter Three: The 1974 Trial of Andre Brink's Kennis van die Aand Part III: Despite Rollback Efforts, Ongoing Recognition, 1975-80 Chapter Four: The 1978 Case of Etienne Leroux's Magersfontein, O Magersfontein! Part IV: Decisive Legal Recognition, 1980-2010 Chapter Five: (The Road to) Constitutional Autonomy Chapter Six: Conclusion Works Cited Index

Reviews

A thoroughly historicized account of legal positions about the growing institutional autonomy of literature in South Africa. -- Andries Visagie, Professor in Afrikaans literature in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, Stellenbosch University Censorship in apartheid-era South Africa was at once crudely repressive and strangely convoluted. When it came to literature this was in part because a small but influential group of censors, mainly literary academics but also some writers, attempted to defend the ideals of an autonomous `Republic of Letters' from within the bureaucracy itself. In his deeply researched study of the longer judicial history of the exceptio artis in South Africa, Ted Laros fills in the legal back story to this fatal compromise, reflects on the complex role the courts played in supporting and limiting it, and considers its afterlife in the legislation underpinning the new South Africa's constitutional democracy. Literature and Law in South Africa, 1910-2010 is indispensable reading not only for scholars and students interested in the cunning passages of the South African legal history, but for anyone who wishes to gain a better understanding of how the ideals of the European Enlightenment co-existed with, and sometimes abetted, the brutal exercise of power in the age of empire. -- Peter D. McDonald, author of <i>The Literature Police: Apartheid Censorship and its Cultural Consequences</i> (Oxford, 2009) When does the unspeakable become sayable because it is said within the context of art? Ted Laros`s study of Apartheid and post-Apartheid censorship trials demonstrates how the literary field is constructed as one that lies outside the scope of legal censorship, which marks a decisive moment in the volatile relationship between law and literature. His study shows that this moment differs depending on the legal system and legal culture in which it occurs. It therefore addresses the changing racial and legal politics of South Africa to show how the autonomization of the literary field interacted with the state's changing conceptualization of itself. -- Greta Olson, general editor of the <i>European Journal of English Studies</i>, co-founder of the European Network for Law and Literature Research, and professor of English and American Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Giessen, Germany


A thoroughly historicized account of legal positions about the growing institutional autonomy of literature in South Africa. -- Andries Visagie, Professor in Afrikaans literature in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, Stellenbosch University


A thoroughly historicized account of legal positions about the growing institutional autonomy of literature in South Africa.--Andries Visagie, Professor in Afrikaans literature in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, Stellenbosch University When does the unspeakable become sayable because it is said within the context of art? Ted Laros`s study of Apartheid and post-Apartheid censorship trials demonstrates how the literary field is constructed as one that lies outside the scope of legal censorship, which marks a decisive moment in the volatile relationship between law and literature. His study shows that this moment differs depending on the legal system and legal culture in which it occurs. It therefore addresses the changing racial and legal politics of South Africa to show how the autonomization of the literary field interacted with the state's changing conceptualization of itself.--Greta Olson, general editor of the European Journal of English Studies, co-founder of the European Network for Law and Literature Research, and professor of English and American Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Giessen, Germany Censorship in apartheid-era South Africa was at once crudely repressive and strangely convoluted. When it came to literature this was in part because a small but influential group of censors, mainly literary academics but also some writers, attempted to defend the ideals of an autonomous 'Republic of Letters' from within the bureaucracy itself. In his deeply researched study of the longer judicial history of the exceptio artis in South Africa, Ted Laros fills in the legal back story to this fatal compromise, reflects on the complex role the courts played in supporting and limiting it, and considers its afterlife in the legislation underpinning the new South Africa's constitutional democracy. Literature and Law in South Africa, 1910-2010 is indispensable reading not only for scholars and students interested in the cunning passages of the South African legal history, but for anyone who wishes to gain a better understanding of how the ideals of the European Enlightenment co-existed with, and sometimes abetted, the brutal exercise of power in the age of empire.--Peter D. McDonald, author of The Literature Police: Apartheid Censorship and its Cultural Consequences (Oxford, 2009)


Author Information

Ted Laros is assistant professor of literary studies at the Open University of the Netherlands.

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