Broad-strokes: Beginnings, Turns & Returns, Closures

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The Chosen Few: Themes Exercising the Academy

The study of oral artefacts is mentioned in the quotation above, together with autobiographical works and products or practices of popular culture, as examples of the types of objects of cultural studies which have presumably been conventionalised as appropriate objects for English studies. I find this far too sweeping a generalisation, not least because it is highly questionable to group such diverse artefacts under a generic heading such as ‘cultural studies’. There are important distinctions between oral artefacts, autobiographies, popular texts (film, genre fiction) and non-textual ‘popular’ or practices (bus-tickets, spaces, buildings, sports events).
Oral forms, particularly poetry, appear to have a longer history and an earlier genesis as objects of analysis in academic discourse than either autobiographical or popular objects / practices. Oral objects, as a focus for academic attention, appear to be relatively easier to delimit and support than autobiographical or popular objects / practices.
Transcriptions of oral forms (mainly poetry) are a more or less clearly defined type of discourse which, though not generally falling within the purview of the discipline using the Practical Critical approach, comes for the most part in the recognisable form (for the literary academic) of a written text. Moreover, its long and sustained, if minor, presence in the academy is a matter of record (see foregoing section, and Section II of Chapter 2).
However, though autobiographical objects are relatively easy to define, their academic pedigree is more difficult to establish than the study of oral forms. Nevertheless, analysis of the articles in the 11 journals gives a very strong indication that autobiographical objects have been subsumed into the purview of the discipline, as subsequent discussion will show. On the other hand, popular objects / practices appear to have neither a strong or relatively incontestable definition, nor a firm toehold in the academy.
The current of academic discourse on autobiographical objects is fairly substantial, and constitutes a greater and more consistent focus for literary academics in South Africa than either oral or popular forms, products or practices. It is also a relatively recent phenomenon, becoming a real presence in the journals from the early 1990s onwards. While many articles on autobiographies can be found in CW, the fact that such articles appear in most journals, although a weak index due to the high permeability of journal boundaries, is nevertheless an indicator of a general and wide acceptance among the literary academic community of this practice, and these artefacts, as proper objects for the discipline (see also Section II of Chapter 2 above).
The inaugural volume of CW carries an article on Bloke Modisane’s Blame Me on History (Ngwenya 1989). Thereafter, there is a significant and consistent focus on issues related to, or specifically on, autobiographical writing: Chapman 1995; Coullie 1991; Daymond and Lenta 1990; Daymond 1991, 1993, 1999; Farr 2000; Gititi 1991; Govinden 2000, 2001; Gready 1995; Gray 1990; Griesel 1991; Jacobs 2000a, 2000b; Koyana 2002; Coullie 2001; Medalie 2000; Meyer 2000; Ngwenya 2000; Nussbaum 1991; Nuttall 1996; Rosenberg 2000; Ryan 1993; Schalkwyk 1998; Shear 1989; Thale 2000; Van Wyk Smith 1991; Wisker 2000; and Wylie 1991. Seldom, though, is there attention paid to biographical writing, though there are some exceptions: Kossick 1993, Conradie 1998, and Stobie 2004.
Turning now to popular objects or practices, a number of very diverse non-traditional objects are selected for analysis in the journals. Brown examines the ‘film text’ of Mapantusula (1994b), Pridmore examines the reception of an historical figure, Henry Francis Fynn (1994). Many other forms are analysed too: collections of letters, diaries, memoirs, journals or travelogues (Coetzee 1995, 2000; Couzens 1992; Driver 1995; De Reuck 1995; Fourie 1995; Haarhoff 1989; Hunter 1994; Jansen 1998; Lenta 1992; Penn 1993; Putnam 2002; Ryan 2001; Sienaert 1998; Van Wyk Smith 1997; Woodward 1995, 1998); popular magazines and print media (Murray 1994; Laden 2001; Dunton and Mokuku 2003; Couzens 1976); periodicals such as ‘Trek’ (Sandwith 1998); missionary records and narratives (De Kock 1994, 1995); occult discourses in the press (Bourgault 1997); Zulu cultural practices (Muller 1994); documentaries (Maingard 1997); literacy events (Stein and Slonimsky 2001); painting and photography (Nuttall and Attwell 2001); autoethnography (Jeursen and Tomaselli 2002); literary tourism, tourist venues or tourism campaigns (Robinson 2002, Du Plessis 1987; Bass 2002); radio plays (Gunner 2003b); a linguistic’ reading of a fees crisis (Consterdine 2001); advertising campaigns (Janks 1998; Mokuku 2000); music (Allen 2002, 2004;
Nyairo 2004; Viljoen 2004); film (Bertelsen 1999; Graham-Smith 2004; Fiske 1976; Whittock 1978); sculpture (Rankin 1976); comic strips (Tiffin 1999); pageants (Merrington 1999); cultural practices at
private girls schools in Natal (Ryan 2004); concentration camps (De Reuck 1999); and maps (Stiebel 2002). (This list is fairly comprehensive of such articles appearing in the journals under review, but is certainly not exhaustive).

Introduction
Chapter 1. Disciplined Discourse .
Chapter 2. Broad-strokes: Beginnings, Turns & Returns, Closures.
Chapter 3. The Chosen Few: Themes Exercising the Academy
Chapter 4. The Rise of South African Literary Studies .
Chapter 5. Conclusion.

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ENGLISH ACADEMIC LITERARY DISCOURSE IN SOUTH AFRICA 1958-2004: A REVIEW OF 11 ACADEMIC JOURNALS