The ambiguities of exile: Lewis Nkosi, literary critic

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Periodical article

Title:	The ambiguities of exile: Lewis Nkosi, literary critic
Author:	Chapman, Michael
Year:	2013
Periodical:	The English Academy Review (ISSN 1753-5360)
Volume:	30
Issue:	1
Pages:	6-21
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	writers exile literature literary criticism
About person:	Lewis Nkosi (1936-2010)
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10131752.2013.783386
Abstract:	Written initially to commemorate Lewis Nkosi's death in 2010, this article suggests that 'commemoration' should not involve only praise, but also evaluation. Accordingly, Nkosi's literary criticism is assessed as constituting - it is argued - this writer's major contribution to literature. The assessment proceeds by considering Nkosi as a writer and a human being whose achievement is illuminated by the ambiguities of exile, both the constraints and the possibilities of a career at a distance from home. In locating an 'autobiographical' element within the literary essays, the argument finds valuable complementary insights in the work of Deleuze and Guattari, to whom Nkosi refers, on minorities and majorities in literature and life. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]