12 - Modernity, Culture, and Nation

Summary

As with identities, the arts in South Africa are characterised by diversity rather than a common set of concerns, styles, and approaches. Although the postcolonial state has sought to marshal the arts in the service of the notion of a new nation, major South African writers continue to insist that one cannot speak of a unique South African literature, for that literature rests on a paradox. Apart from vernacular texts, the greater readership of the work of South African writers exists outside the country. These readers’ sense of aesthetics, derived from previously read texts, influences the way South African writing is received. Until the late twentieth century, the major divide in the arts was racial: black creative arts were not produced under the same conditions and experienced audiences and reception responses that were generally different from colonial writing, painting, and performance activities. Equally, both colonial and postcolonial contexts have been characterised by the contestation of meanings, literariness, and artistic value. Moreover, the political domain has tended to dominate in the arts, encroaching on the ways in which artistic works have been received, albeit in dynamic ways. The processes of reading and interpretation are constantly changing, and new readings make possible new interpretations. Selecting a finite set of themes, this chapter explores the links among modernity, culture and nation in the broad field of cultural production in South Africa over the long twentieth century.