GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE

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The project of this year was focused on Bessie Head, the South African and Botswanan woman writer In order to understand how the Modem South African Literature has been developed under the Apartheid period. In Japan the main studies of African Literature have been focused on Japanese translations of African writings since 1960's. Among them, there are 4 translations of Bessie Head's works, Including A.Question of Power, Man, Tales of Tenderness and Power, and A Collectors of Treasure. Those works are very important to understand how the African woman writer was born In the Southern Africa.For Bessie Head, writing in any form, fictions, stories, or letter-form, Is a source of self-actualization. Mostly her writing is largely biographical and a direct correlation between fiction and reality of her experiences either at a personal or a communal level Particularly, Bessei Head showed her emotional feelings behind her writings In her personal correspondence, which was historical documents of Southern Africa, South Africa and Botswana.Presumably she sent more than 2000 letters to her friends, publishers, editors and readers and others in her life and kept most letters sent to her. Writing letters or stories whatever, for Bessle Head, is like talking to somebody in her mind. So it is very important communication tool for her survival in the community wherC she felt isolated and loneliness. Writing process is to gain self-awareness and self-definition as a woman.I could publish A Biography of Bessie Head from the Third World Publisher In Japan this year as a result of this project supported by the Ministry of Education financially.