This study began with my interest in the symbolism being mobilized around the historic South African election of 1994. Formative parts were developed with an eye to contributing to an envisaged range of research modules designed to encourage interdisciplinarity within the Faculty of Humanities at the former University of Durban-Westville. Despite the rivalries and insecurities that shadow political change, We hoped that new paths would be opened between literary studies, linguistics, history, and philosophy. The plan was to present a range of source texts and analytic expositions that would serve to introduce students to the intellectual traditions intersecting in South Africa. Hopefully, the connections between local phenomena and metropolitan theoretical currents would appear in new and challenging ways. However, the dream of originating a new type of postapartheid African researcher able to mine the rich and traumatic colonial archive was not to be. The demands of institutional mergers and rationalization have taken precedence, and the present text stands somewhat awkwardly as testimony to a transitional optimism.

The debt I owe to fellow researchers past and present is evident in every page that follows, and is most vital where criticism is at its sharpest. The following people in particular have directly contributed to my work in ways they could not have anticipated: Clair Durow, Thokozani Mthiyane, Tony Voss, Helize van Vuuren, Elizabeth Greyling, Mduduzi Dlamini, Richard Consterdine, Thembi Lembethe, Johan Van Wyk, Jabulani Mkhize, Kelwyn Sole, and Sikhumbuzo Mngadi.