Title: The New Century of South African Short Stories
Editor: Michael Chapman
Type: Fiktion
Imprint: Ad Donker Publishers
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Cape Town, South Africa 2010
ISBN 9780868522272 / ISBN 978-0-86852-227-2
Softcover, 16 x 22 cm, 353 pages
The New Century of South African Short Stories is a major, new anthology which revisits our storytelling from a ‘post-apartheid' perspective. The selection ranges from San and African oral tales to contemporary works. Acknowledged talents like Pauline Smith, Herman Charles Bosman, Can Themba, Nadine Gordimer, Abraham H. de Vries and Hennie Aucamp share the pages with story writers from the recent past including H.I.E. Dhlomo and Alex La Guma, and with writers from the present day: Ahmed Essop, Njabulo S. Ndebele, Peter Wilhelm, Antjie Krog and Zoë Wicomb, among them. Translations, many especially commissioned for this anthology, ensure representation in English of South Africa's cultural diversity.
From Bosman's classic ‘Oom Schalk' yarns to Casey Motsisi's shebeen sketches, from the San storyteller //Kabbo for whom a story is like the wind to Gordimer's bizarre version of a children's tale Once upon a Time, The New Century of South African Short Stories conveys the perennial fascination of the story in all of our lives. Story, Michael Chapman says in his Introduction, is this country's most lively, various and accessible form of literary expression. Whereas the novel captured the big theme of apartheid, the story in its surprising flexibility is suited to a society that suddenly has to reinvent itself: to retell its story, or stories. Or to find new stories.
PREFACE
STORY: AN INTRODUCTION
PART ONE: ORAL PAST
Myths, fables, legends, tales/stories suggesting ancient or olden times
The Sun is Thrown into the Sky
The Girl who Made Stars
The Young Man who was Carried off by a Lion
Nkulunkulu, the One who Came First
How Death Entered the World
Maqinase, the Wily One
The Bird that Made Milk
The Child with a Moon on his Chest
The Man who Threw Away his Bread
PART TWO: COLONIAL TO MODERN
1800s-1970
//Kabbo A story is like the wind'
Pulvermacher: Prayer of Titus Tokaan
HW Nevinson: Vae Victis
Eugène Marais; : The Grey Pipit
Sarah Gertrude Millin: Up from Gilgal
Pauline Smith: The Sisters
RRR Dhlomo: The Death of Masaba
Herman Charles Bosman: Funeral Earth
C. Louis Leipoldt: The Tree
HIE Dhlomo: The Barren Woman
Es'kia Mphahlele: Down the Quiet Street
Casey Motsisi: Kid Playboy
Can Themba: Crepuscule
Alex La Guma: A Matter of Taste
Abraham H de Vries: The Girl with the Bra-pistol
Jan Rabie: Maiden Outing to Rondebosch
Chris Barnard: Bush
Karel Schoeman: Seed in a New Earth
Nadine Gordimer: The Credibility Gap
PART THREE: 1970-1990
Hennie Aucamp: The Coat without End
Ken Barris: The Questioning
Ahmed Essop Hajji: Musa and the Hindu Fire-walker
Nadine Gordimer: The Termitary
Hannes Haasbroek: Departure
Bessie Head: The Wind and a Boy
Christopher Hope: The Fall of the British Empire
Maud Motanyane: Two Minutes
PT Mtuze: The Way to Madam
Njabulo S Ndebele: Death of a Son
Marguerite Poland: The Wood-ash Stars
Jayapraga Reddy: The Spirit of Two Worlds
Peter Wilhelm: Jazz
PART FOUR: 1990-
Abraham H. de Vries: Ruins
Nadine Gordimer: Once upon a Time
Stephen Gray: The Building-site
Liz Gunner: Cattle Passing
Maureen Isaacson: I Could Have Loved Gold
Ashraf Jamal: The Beggar-guest
Lekotse's Testimony at the TRC
[retold by Antjie Krog] The Sheep-herder's Tale
Sindiwe Magona: The Sacrificial Lamb
Tohn Matshikiza: With the Lid Off
Of Renaissance and Rhino Stew
The Purple Man in my Bantustan
Rosemary H Moeketsi: Guilty as Charged
Sheila Roberts: Carlotta's Vinyl Skin
Riana Scheepers Book
Marlene van Niekerk: Labour
Eben Venter: Tinktinkie
Ivan Vladislavic: The WHITES ONLY Bench
Zoë Wicomb: Another Story
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
