Exchanges: South African Writing in Transition

This book is a collection of interviews with South African writers, cultural workers and academics, from differing ideological positions, about the debates generated by Albie Sachs's paper 'Preparing Ourselves for Freedom'. It aims both to document a particularly interesting period in our cultural history, and to stimulate new responses by placing together disparate, and often conflicting, arguments. What emerges from many of the interviews is the sense that the debate is only just beginning. The discussion which Sachs's paper has generated is the start of a necessary re-evaluation of the relationship between literature and political events in the light of changes within South African society. These interviews collated by Duncan Brown and Bruno van Dyk between May and November 1990 offer a frank and fascinating view of South African writing in transition.