The Cambridge Companion to Nelson Mandela

Description

Nelson Mandela was one of the most revered figures of our time. He committed himself to a compelling political cause, suffered a long prison sentence, and led his violent and divided country to a peaceful democratic transition. His legacy, however, is not uncontested: his decision to embark on an armed struggle in the 1960s, his solitary talks with apartheid officials in the 1980s, and the economic policies adopted during his presidency still spark intense debate, even after his death. The essays in this Companion, written by experts in history, anthropology, jurisprudence, cinema, literature, and visual studies, address these and other issues. They examine how Mandela became an icon during his lifetime and consider the meanings and uses of his internationally recognizable image. Their overarching concerns include Mandela's relation to 'tradition' and 'modernity', the impact of his most famous public performances, the oscillation between Africanist and non-racial positions in South Africa, and the politics of gender and national sentiment. The volume concludes with a meditation on Mandela's legacy in the twenty-first century and a detailed guide to further reading.

Rita Barnard is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania and Professor Extraordinaire at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She is the author of The Great Depression and the Culture of Abundance (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and Apartheid and Beyond: South African Writers and the Politics of Place (2006). Her work has appeared in several important collections about South African culture and in journals such as Novel, Contemporary Literature, Cultural Studies, Research in African Literatures, and Modern Fiction Studies.

'This book of twelve essays (almost entirely by South Africans) with an excellent introductory essay by Rita Barnard is inaugural ... His life story will be revised, his politics reinterpreted like Gandhi's. Like Gandhi, it will take time for reasoned, critical (and perhaps even deconstructive) judgments to arise. This book is a superb start.' Daniel Herwitz, Critical Inquiry