Literary history is a problematic and shifting discourse, especially in the multilingual, post-colonial South African situation. In this book, the author draws on his intimate knowledge of documents written in Dutch during the 17th century and the texts that were produced in this language and its variations as it gradually became Afrikaans by the end of the 19th century. A History of South Afri…
"Placing itself within the burgeoning field of world literary studies, the organising principle of this book is that of an open-ended dynamic, namely the cosmopolitan-vernacular exchange. As an adaptable comparative fulcrum for literary studies, the notion of the cosmopolitan-vernacular exchange accommodates also highly localised literatures. In this way, it redresses what has repeatedly been i…