Ph.D. University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2012 / This thesis studies the readership of literature that was banned under the various laws
that comprised the censorship system, focusing on the apartheid period, from the
1950s until the early 1990s. It investigates the conditions under which banned and
subversive literature existed in the underground network despite the ever-looming
censorship apparatus. It is based on theories drawn from the history of the book,
sociology of literature, South African literary histories, and on data from secondary
and primary sources such as archival material and interviews with, and testimonies
from, readers. This thesis focuses on the roles of readers in alternative circuits, by
examining the modalities of sourcing, distributing, reading and sharing of imported
and local banned publications. It seeks to demonstrate that readers did read banned
books and books likely to be banned, showing creativity in the various strategies used
to get these books into the country and to share them amongst the largest number of
readers, using texts in various fashions, and actively participating to the South African
literary industry and broader socio-political affairs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/11776 |
| Date | 21 August 2012 |
| Creators | Matteau, Rachel |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, text/xml, application/pdf |
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