Andrew van der Vlies
Andrew is a graduate of the University of Oxford in the UK, and of Rhodes University in South Africa. He has taught at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Sheffield. Books include monographs on South African print cultures, and on postapartheid writing, affect and temporality, and a number of edited and co-edited volumes. He has been awarded fellowships and grants by the British Academy, AHRC, and Leverhulme Trust in the UK, the Harry Ransom Research Center in the US, and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa.
Primary research and teaching interests include
• Modern and contemporary literatures in English (especially British, North American, and African)
• South African literatures (in English and Afrikaans), literary historiography, visual cultures, fine art, cultural studies
• Affect studies, ‘Public Feelings’, politics and emotion
• Gender and sexuality studies and Queer Theory
• History of the Book / print and text cultures (especially colonial and postcolonial) / textual editing
• Modernisms, global and peripheral
• Debates about the theory, practice, and pedagogy of ‘World Literature’ and ‘Postcolonial Studies’
• Translation theory and practice
Primary research and teaching interests include
• Modern and contemporary literatures in English (especially British, North American, and African)
• South African literatures (in English and Afrikaans), literary historiography, visual cultures, fine art, cultural studies
• Affect studies, ‘Public Feelings’, politics and emotion
• Gender and sexuality studies and Queer Theory
• History of the Book / print and text cultures (especially colonial and postcolonial) / textual editing
• Modernisms, global and peripheral
• Debates about the theory, practice, and pedagogy of ‘World Literature’ and ‘Postcolonial Studies’
• Translation theory and practice
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Books by Andrew van der Vlies
Reading the work of major South African writers such as J.M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer and Ivan Vladislavic as well as contemporary crime fiction, South African Writing in Transition explores how concerns about time and temporality have shaped literary form across the country's literary culture. Establishing new connections between leading literary voices and lesser known works, the book explores themes of truth and reconciliation, disappointment and betrayal.
It addresses key questions in South African studies about the evolving character of the historical period in which the country now finds itself. It is also alert to wider critical and theoretical conversations, looking outward to make a case for the place of South African writing in global conversations, and mobilizing readings of writing marked in various ways as 'South African' in order to complicate the contours of World Literature as category, discipline, and pedagogy. It is thus also a book about the discontents of neoliberalism, the political energies of reading, and the fates of literature in our troubled present.
This volume is the most comprehensive and representative introduction to the study of print and of the book in South Africa, showcasing the best of current research (while problematising the nature of ‘the book’, and exploring the difficult conditions for print in the country). It takes the measure of the impact of book-historical and related fields of study on South African scholarship, while pointing the way towards avenues for future research.
Authors (in order of appearance): Leon de Kock, Isabel Hofmeyr, Meg Samuelson, John Gouws, Lucy Graham, Rita Barnard, Andrew van der Vlies, Jarad Zimbler, Patrick Flanery, Lize Kriel, Archie Dick, Hedley Twidle, Jeff Opland, Deborah Seddon, Lily Saint, Peter McDonald, Margriet van der Waal, Natasha Distiller, Sarah Nuttall, Bronwyn Law-Viljoen, Beth Le Roux.
*
Print, Text and Book Cultures in South Africa is a field-defining contribution to the country’s literary scholarship. Andrew van der Vlies’s introductory essay maps the conceptual terrain in a systematic and engaging way, illustrating its relevance to South Africa’s literary and cultural history. The essays that follow demonstrate the archival richness and liveliness of the field, while opening doors to future research. Beyond South Africa, the book will be exemplary in showing how book histories develop under postcolonial conditions.
-- David Attwell, author of J.M. Coetzee: South Africa and the Politics of Writing (1993) and Rewriting Modernity: Studies in Black South African Literary History (2005), and co-editor of The Cambridge History of South African Literature (2012)
South African literary criticism has been rejuvenated by an emphasis on the materiality of book production and circulation, and the historical embedding of those institutions and practices that turned texts into ‘works’ considered worthy of our attention. This elegantly framed collection of readable, provocative essays examines the relations between the production and consumption of books to present a rich social history of South African print cultures. It is indispensible reading for anyone seeking to come to terms with the processes and practices, both national and transnational, that have fashioned this country’s literature and the ways in which it is read and understood.
-- Michael Titlestad, University of the Witwatersrand
This is an extraordinarily rewarding book. Its essays by key scholars and book-trade practitioners attend to the rich complexity of the varied trajectories and meanings of South African print culture. The introduction by Andrew van der Vlies offers a tour de force statement of the complex interplay between South African social, political, and economic realities and book history methodologies; each piece that follows charts a compelling course through the shifting contexts for South African print, whether to bring those contexts to bear on literary interpretation, or to highlight the interdependence of print and history.
-- Sarah Brouillette, author of Postcolonial Writers in the Global Literary Marketplace (2007)
Wide-ranging and sophisticated, this collection of essays does not simply add more case studies to the book-historical canon but contributes new models to the debate.
-- Leah Price, Harvard University
Thought provoking, wide ranging in its subject material, and dynamically edited, this collection marks a turning point in the study of book cultures in South Africa. These essays, exemplars of recently published work in the field, draw attention to the rich, interdisciplinary seams of material uncovered by key exponents of South African print culture history. The work as a whole demonstrates how one can engage with the confluence of text, people, history, culture, and print technology in South African contexts. It will prove one of the first ports of call for anyone wishing to undertake further journeys in this subject area in the future.
-- David Finkelstein, co-editor of The Book History Reader (2001) and The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland (vol. 4, 2007), and co-author of An Introduction to Book History (2005)
From the reviews:
‘Lively, succinct, and readable, Andrew van der Vlies’s handbook of key themes, contexts, and intertexts is the best reader’s guide to J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace on the market.’ Endorsement from Mark Sanders, New York University.
‘Andrew van der Vlies, in J. M. Coetzee’s “Disgrace”, testifies to the amount of intellectual activity at work in this seemingly slight novel […]. His detailed account of central themes, alongside a narrative of Disgrace’s historical context and reception, will bolster the thinking of any casual reader. He pays the text the attention it deserves […]’. Stephen Abell, ‘J. M. Coetzee and the limits of sympathy’, Times Literary Supplement 25 February 2011: 2.
‘[V]an der Vlies provides a very fine introduction to Disgrace in this volume. Readers will find especially insightful his treatment of Coetzee’s preoccupation with alterity, and the responsibility, both ethical and aesthetic, that such otherness exacts.’ Mike Marais, Review of J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace & J.M. Coetzee’s Austerities, Research in African Literatures 42.4 (2011): 135-37; 135.""
From the reviews:
"This is a pathbreaking book. [....] This interdisciplinary research establishes van der Vlies as a first rate literary critic, historian and cultural sociologist"
Laura Chrisman, SHARP News (August 2009)
"'South African Textual Cultures' is a significant addition to the field of postcolonial studies, and at the same time is informative and enabling. Heavily engaged with the political machinations of these developments and freighted with rigorous archival evidence, van der Vlies’ study is a model of scholarly rigour and will, one hopes, beget similar projects in other postcolonial contexts"
Eóin Flannery, Journal of Southern African Studies (June 2009)
"'South African Textual Cultures' is exemplary. Grounded in empirical research..., it is a thorough application of book history’s core methodologies. It also provides extensive evidence for one of its chief pieties: never stable, the meaning and value of texts shift with diverse readerships’ invested responses to particular circumstances. ... Though it presents itself as partial accounts of moments within a multivalent transnational history, readers of this study will come away with a sense of the overarching political horizons that have framed the region’s literary production, from Olive Schreiner’s 'The Story of an African Farm' (1883) to the post-apartheid novels of Zakes Mda"
Sarah Brouillette, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies (November 2008)
"
Select Book Chapters by Andrew van der Vlies
Reading the work of major South African writers such as J.M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer and Ivan Vladislavic as well as contemporary crime fiction, South African Writing in Transition explores how concerns about time and temporality have shaped literary form across the country's literary culture. Establishing new connections between leading literary voices and lesser known works, the book explores themes of truth and reconciliation, disappointment and betrayal.
It addresses key questions in South African studies about the evolving character of the historical period in which the country now finds itself. It is also alert to wider critical and theoretical conversations, looking outward to make a case for the place of South African writing in global conversations, and mobilizing readings of writing marked in various ways as 'South African' in order to complicate the contours of World Literature as category, discipline, and pedagogy. It is thus also a book about the discontents of neoliberalism, the political energies of reading, and the fates of literature in our troubled present.
This volume is the most comprehensive and representative introduction to the study of print and of the book in South Africa, showcasing the best of current research (while problematising the nature of ‘the book’, and exploring the difficult conditions for print in the country). It takes the measure of the impact of book-historical and related fields of study on South African scholarship, while pointing the way towards avenues for future research.
Authors (in order of appearance): Leon de Kock, Isabel Hofmeyr, Meg Samuelson, John Gouws, Lucy Graham, Rita Barnard, Andrew van der Vlies, Jarad Zimbler, Patrick Flanery, Lize Kriel, Archie Dick, Hedley Twidle, Jeff Opland, Deborah Seddon, Lily Saint, Peter McDonald, Margriet van der Waal, Natasha Distiller, Sarah Nuttall, Bronwyn Law-Viljoen, Beth Le Roux.
*
Print, Text and Book Cultures in South Africa is a field-defining contribution to the country’s literary scholarship. Andrew van der Vlies’s introductory essay maps the conceptual terrain in a systematic and engaging way, illustrating its relevance to South Africa’s literary and cultural history. The essays that follow demonstrate the archival richness and liveliness of the field, while opening doors to future research. Beyond South Africa, the book will be exemplary in showing how book histories develop under postcolonial conditions.
-- David Attwell, author of J.M. Coetzee: South Africa and the Politics of Writing (1993) and Rewriting Modernity: Studies in Black South African Literary History (2005), and co-editor of The Cambridge History of South African Literature (2012)
South African literary criticism has been rejuvenated by an emphasis on the materiality of book production and circulation, and the historical embedding of those institutions and practices that turned texts into ‘works’ considered worthy of our attention. This elegantly framed collection of readable, provocative essays examines the relations between the production and consumption of books to present a rich social history of South African print cultures. It is indispensible reading for anyone seeking to come to terms with the processes and practices, both national and transnational, that have fashioned this country’s literature and the ways in which it is read and understood.
-- Michael Titlestad, University of the Witwatersrand
This is an extraordinarily rewarding book. Its essays by key scholars and book-trade practitioners attend to the rich complexity of the varied trajectories and meanings of South African print culture. The introduction by Andrew van der Vlies offers a tour de force statement of the complex interplay between South African social, political, and economic realities and book history methodologies; each piece that follows charts a compelling course through the shifting contexts for South African print, whether to bring those contexts to bear on literary interpretation, or to highlight the interdependence of print and history.
-- Sarah Brouillette, author of Postcolonial Writers in the Global Literary Marketplace (2007)
Wide-ranging and sophisticated, this collection of essays does not simply add more case studies to the book-historical canon but contributes new models to the debate.
-- Leah Price, Harvard University
Thought provoking, wide ranging in its subject material, and dynamically edited, this collection marks a turning point in the study of book cultures in South Africa. These essays, exemplars of recently published work in the field, draw attention to the rich, interdisciplinary seams of material uncovered by key exponents of South African print culture history. The work as a whole demonstrates how one can engage with the confluence of text, people, history, culture, and print technology in South African contexts. It will prove one of the first ports of call for anyone wishing to undertake further journeys in this subject area in the future.
-- David Finkelstein, co-editor of The Book History Reader (2001) and The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland (vol. 4, 2007), and co-author of An Introduction to Book History (2005)
From the reviews:
‘Lively, succinct, and readable, Andrew van der Vlies’s handbook of key themes, contexts, and intertexts is the best reader’s guide to J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace on the market.’ Endorsement from Mark Sanders, New York University.
‘Andrew van der Vlies, in J. M. Coetzee’s “Disgrace”, testifies to the amount of intellectual activity at work in this seemingly slight novel […]. His detailed account of central themes, alongside a narrative of Disgrace’s historical context and reception, will bolster the thinking of any casual reader. He pays the text the attention it deserves […]’. Stephen Abell, ‘J. M. Coetzee and the limits of sympathy’, Times Literary Supplement 25 February 2011: 2.
‘[V]an der Vlies provides a very fine introduction to Disgrace in this volume. Readers will find especially insightful his treatment of Coetzee’s preoccupation with alterity, and the responsibility, both ethical and aesthetic, that such otherness exacts.’ Mike Marais, Review of J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace & J.M. Coetzee’s Austerities, Research in African Literatures 42.4 (2011): 135-37; 135.""
From the reviews:
"This is a pathbreaking book. [....] This interdisciplinary research establishes van der Vlies as a first rate literary critic, historian and cultural sociologist"
Laura Chrisman, SHARP News (August 2009)
"'South African Textual Cultures' is a significant addition to the field of postcolonial studies, and at the same time is informative and enabling. Heavily engaged with the political machinations of these developments and freighted with rigorous archival evidence, van der Vlies’ study is a model of scholarly rigour and will, one hopes, beget similar projects in other postcolonial contexts"
Eóin Flannery, Journal of Southern African Studies (June 2009)
"'South African Textual Cultures' is exemplary. Grounded in empirical research..., it is a thorough application of book history’s core methodologies. It also provides extensive evidence for one of its chief pieties: never stable, the meaning and value of texts shift with diverse readerships’ invested responses to particular circumstances. ... Though it presents itself as partial accounts of moments within a multivalent transnational history, readers of this study will come away with a sense of the overarching political horizons that have framed the region’s literary production, from Olive Schreiner’s 'The Story of an African Farm' (1883) to the post-apartheid novels of Zakes Mda"
Sarah Brouillette, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies (November 2008)
"