Momentum: On Recent South African Writing

MOMENTUM sees writing in South Africa after Soweto '76 as being of two kinds: the artefact (novels, plays or poetry) and the manifesto (the artist's statement about the shaping power of events in this country on his or her work). Another kind of division is also operative in South African literature: the writings of those who live here and the writings of those who live abroad - our exiles. Because there are at least these two kinds of divisions in our literature, MOMENTUM takes the shape it does. It combines writers' statements (from home and abroad) about their work with critical discussion of that work. This combination is unique in South African publishing and its effect is to allow the reader to come to an independent understanding of the interactions between forces which shape our writing, the writing itself, and critical response to that writing.