Bloke of All Ages
Persepectives on Bloke Modisane
Published on 1. February 2026
272 pages
978-1-77614-978-0 (ISBN)
Description
Bloke of All Ages is an expansive reflection that offers refreshing new insights into the works of one of South Africa's most important literary, intellectual and artistic figures, William Bloke Modisane. Born in Sophiatown, Modisane was a remarkable author, playwright and actor, and a leading member of the DRUM generation in the 1950s. The contributors trace Modisane's intellectual and cultural journey from his early years in South Africa to his exile in the United Kingdom, East Africa, North America, Italy, the German Democratic Republic, and the Federal Republic of Germany. Through a comprehensive and diverse exploration of Modisane's body of work, they offer critical literary essays on his early short stories,his autobiography Blame Me on History, his journalism as well as his writings while in exile. The volume also includes little-known and previously unpublished essays by Modisane, written during his time in exile. Bloke of All Ages highlights the timelessness and resilience of Modisane's work and situates Modisane's significant intellectual and cultural contribution to South African creative arts.
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Persons
William (Bloke) Modisane (28 August 1923 - 1 March 1986) was a South African writer, actor and journalist.
Content
Foreword by David Attwell Introduction - Siyabonga Njica and Siphiwo Mahala Part I: Johannesburg, Drum and the Making of a Modern Intellectual Chapter 1 Restless Spaces in Modisane's Johannesburg - Liz Gunner Chapter 2 Modisane at Marienbad: Cinema, Time, and Memory in Blame Me on History - Mark Sanders Chapter 3 Recovering the 'Humour and Idiom of Damon Runyon' in Bloke Modisane's Writing for Drum Magazine - Colette Guldimann Chapter 4 Blame the Present on History? The Depiction of South African Townships and the Façade of Democracy - Molebogeng Sebesho Chapter 5 Black Ontology in Modisane's Blame Me on History - Bafana Radebe Part II: Exilic Routes and Transnational Networks Chapter 6 'Corns on my sitters': Bloke Modisane's Dramatic Exit and the Exilic Archive of South Africa - Benjamin N. Lawrance and Vusumuzi R. Kumalo Chapter 7 Transatlantic Artistic and Intellectual Bromance: The Bloke Modisane and Langston Hughes Connection - Siphiwo Mahala Chapter 8 Lang and Bloke: Transnational Lines of Flight - Shane Graham Chapter 9 Bloke Modisane's Cold War Intellectual Itineraries in East Africa - Siyabonga Njica Part III: Bloke Modisane in His Own Words Chapter 10 The Kwela - Jazz of the Locations - Bloke Modisane Chapter 11 Short Story Writing in Black South Africa - Bloke Modisane Chapter 12 Culture in Crisis - Bloke Modisane Chapter 13 Repatriate Me - Bloke Modisane Acknowledgements Contributors Index
