BESSIE HEAD: A BIBLIOGRAPHY Authors: Susan Gardner and Patricia E Scott NELMBibliographies; General Editor: Gareth Cornwall Published by National English Literary Museum, Grahamstown 1986, 52pp Price: R4,95 Reviewed by M J Daymond RESETEN Bessie Head’s sudden death in Botswana in April last year does, as Gareth Cornwall says, cast a shadow over the publication of this Bibliography of her work. It is the first in a projected series on Southern African writers ‘which is intended to meet the need, given the burgeoning interest in ourliterature, for adequate, accessible reference tools. As such, it also forms, although it was obviously not planned for this sad purpose, a tribute to one of our foremost writers. Bessie Head wasnot a prolific writer but her three novels, collection of short stories and her folk histories have, as the Bibliography makes clear, been receiving increasingcritical attention. The Bibliographyis divided into a chronologicallisting of Bessie Head’s writing, including details of translations and reprints of her work; critical writing on Bessie Head: book reviews. The entries are not annotated but the bookis fully indexed and cross-referencing has been undertaken. Thereis a useful introductory essay by Susan Gardner, in which she touchesbriefly on the numerousquestions which Head’s writing poses for the literary critic. She considers the function of the “ideal biographical legend” in our conceptofthe relationship of personality to creativity and for the bearing this has on whatBessie Head revealed abouther ownlife. The connection between Head and the Drum writers is reconsidered, as is the question of whether she should bediscussed as a South African writer at all. The possible assimilation of Head's fiction into the current discussion of women, sexuality and madnessis indicated together with Head’s apparently sentimental reliance on romance as the basis of good relationships between women and men. All in all, the essay is a skillful indication of the variety in Head’s writing and of the strands of debate being set up in thecriticalliterature. But the value ofthis essay is spoiled by a breakdownin the cross referencing to the numberedentriesin the Bibliography. The numbersdo not correspond. This means, for example, that tracing a quotation in the introduction, especiallyif it is something said by Head herself and which might be from any one of four interviews given in a single year, is likely to prove time-consuming. As researchers in most South African libraries have to rely on inter-library loan services, it will also prove expensive; the Bibliography will less readily fulfill its declared purpose of promotinglocalliterary studies. , One of the problems which most exercised Gardner and Scott was that of categorising Head’s writings. They cite Maru to illustrate the difficulties: it has been variously placed as a “painful tale’, a “children’s book” and a “kind of African fairy tale’’. Instead of using annotations, which could indicate the range and complexity of Head’s works, the bibliographers haveset up their ownlist of categories with which theytry to indicate what Headis doing. Butclarity is not always gained from their method or, really, from the categories evolved. For instance, Maru appears in the list of Head’s writing simply as Maru : a novel. Gardnerand Scott supply no category, but then onefinds that Head’s previous long workoffiction (oh dear, categories!) which has a similar subtitle, When Rain Clouds Gather : a novel, does receive one it is “fictional prose’’. It is undoubtedly an economy for a researcher to know that items entitled “Life” (1977) or “Witchcraft” (1975) can be classified as “fictional prose”, but whatis the value of being told that The Collector ofTreasure and Other BotswanaVillage Tales is “‘semi-fictional prose’’? It would seem thateither a fuller description of each entry, or-a system of keywords for computerretrieval, or the occasional note would have been better. The Bibliography covers Head’s own work from herearly journalism, dating from 1959, to what turned out to be her last major work, The Bewitched Crossroad (1984), and seemsto have covered theliterature quite thoroughly. As the bibliographers themselves say, they have “unearthed over 200 items” while Berrian’s Bibliography (1985) contains only 64. Nevertheless, there are some omissions and some oddities. A quick check showsthat Oladele Taiwo’s Female Novelists of Modern Africa (Macmillan, 1984) is not in and’‘Some Notes on Novel Writing”, published in New Classic in 1978, is entered under 1976 as a paper given at the Gaborone Writers Workshop.Its subsequent publicationis noted in the ’76 entry, but the article is too important to scholars for its publication to be obscured. Despite these blemishes, the Bessie Head Bibliography inaugurates what promises to be a much needed and invaluableseries. It should help greatly in gaining properattentionfor our writers and shouldassist local scholarsto assert someof the authority which has been, until recently, too easily yielded to others. Just as Bessie Head sawfit to have herlast work published here, by Ad Donker, so maythis first in the promised NELMseries promptlocalcriticism to accord Southern African writers their due recognition. AP, |DEB aRs PIPREL NU LLC 76 Critical Arts Vol 4.No 3. 1987 Critical Ants Vol 4No 3 1987. 77 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Ian Steadman is head of the School of Dramatic Art, University of Witwatersrand. He is co-editor of The “South African Theatre Journal. David Coplan lectures at the State University of New York and is author of In Township Tonight. Myra Davis is a post-graduate student at the University of Exceter, England. Lindy Stiebel teaches in the Dept of English, Univetsity of Durban-Westville. Keyan Tomaselli is Director of the Contemporary Cultural Studies Unit, University of Natal, Durban. is senior lecturer in Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Johan Muller Stephen Carr is a lecturer in the Dept of Speech and Drama, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. P Eric Louw is lecturer/researcher in the Contemporary Cultural Studies Unit, University of Natal, Durban. Margaret Daymond lectures in the Dept of English, University of Natal, Durban. Graphics illustrating performance articles adapted from Group Media Journal, a) Manusgripts intended for publication shouldbesentin triplicate to the editor, or guest editor, as the case may be. Contributors are asked to adhere to the Journal’s referencing system. Normally, refereeing takes about six weeks, so authors can expect to hear from us within two months of our receipt of the manuscripts. Where less than three copies are submitted, the refereeing process will take longer, and the Journal accepts no responsibility for loss of manuscripts. Referee reports are sent to authors whose papers need modification. CCSU: THE UNIT The Contemporary Cultural Studies Unit provides a focus for inter-disciplinary research. The Unit's post-graduate programmes are designed to facilitate cultural analysis and create strategies for cultural reconstruction in contem- porary South Africa. The seminar papers published by the Unit are aimed at creating a spacefora strategic cultural | studies in South Africa, and at popularising this ,as a locus of academic activity. The Intro- ductory Seminars have been written in a manner which should appeal to undergraduates and other readers involved in informal educational activities (extra-mural, cultural and media groupsetc.) | An Approach to the Study of Culture and This series explores Southern African conditions through implicit and/or explicit theoretical/ empirical analysis. INTRODUCTORY SEMINARS: CULTURE, IDEOLOGY, MEDIA Society in Southern Africa* - Johan Muller 2 Culture and the Media: How We Are Made to See* — Julie Frederikse, Keyan Tomaselli, Johan Muller and Muff Anderson 3. Media Reflections of Ideology — Keyan and Ruth Tomaselli 4 -6 9 The Lineage of Contemporary Cultural Studies: A Brief Overview — Johan Muller, Keyan and Ruth Tomaselli Death and Ideology: Political Thanatology ‘ and the ‘Femme Fatale’ Syndrome — Michael Simpson Teaching Film and Video in Africa* — Keyan Tomaselli 10 The Culture of Animals & Men: A Critique of Sociobiology — David Basckin ADVANCED SEMINARS Advanced seminars, also set in the Southem African context, develop rigorous theoretical interveritions through multi-disciplinary explor- _ ation. LL___qqOccaaa "0 + 5) Contemporary Cultural Studies and the Unit — Keyan Tomaselli 7) Popular Culture and Performance in South 8 Media Studies and the Critique of 78 Critical Arts Vol 4 No 3 1987 Development — Les Switzer 11 Teaching Landscapes as Texts: grammatology, hermeneutics and the spatial imagination*** — John Butler-Adam 12 Tributaries and the Triennial: an examination of two South African art exhibitions*** — Terence King“ ea Argumentative Essays Brief, challenging interventions on pressing contemporary political and cultural topics. | Towards a Transformative procedure - Rob Amato CCSU Resource Documents 14 On the Education ofMinority Journalists: Lessons learnedfrom the experience in South Africa and the United States -Henk La Brie *Published in association with the Foundation for Eduéation with Production, Gaborone, Botswana ***Forthcoming in publication form. 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