Real and imagined readers: censorship, publishing and reading under apartheid

[摘要] This thesis studies the readership of literature that was banned under the various lawsthat comprised the censorship system, focusing on the apartheid period, from the1950s until the early 1990s. It investigates the conditions under which banned andsubversive literature existed in the underground network despite the ever-loomingcensorship apparatus. It is based on theories drawn from the history of the book,sociology of literature, South African literary histories, and on data from secondaryand primary sources such as archival material and interviews with, and testimoniesfrom, readers. This thesis focuses on the roles of readers in alternative circuits, byexamining the modalities of sourcing, distributing, reading and sharing of importedand local banned publications. It seeks to demonstrate that readers did read bannedbooks and books likely to be banned, showing creativity in the various strategies usedto get these books into the country and to share them amongst the largest number ofreaders, using texts in various fashions, and actively participating to the South Africanliterary industry and broader socio-political affairs.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand