Читать книгу Best Books Study Work Guide: Tsotsi Gr 11 HL - Elaine Ridge - Страница 6

Athol Fugard was born in Middelburg, Cape, but grew up in Port Elizabeth. Although he went on to study at UCT, he did not complete his degree. While working as a clerk in a Native Commissioner’s Court, he became very aware of the pernicious and far-reaching effects of apartheid legislation on the lives of black people.

Fugard enjoys both national and international acclaim for his work as a playwright, particularly for his insight into the characters. Although his work is deeply critical of both apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, it focuses on the way people meet the challenges that confront them.

Fugard’s writing focuses on the dysfunctional lives of the poor and defenceless, and the ways their hopes and dreams are doomed to be crushed in apartheid South Africa. In Tsotsi, the only novel he has written, the hero is literally flattened into the dust. Fugard describes the real territory of his work as the world of secrets, with their powerful effect on human behaviour and the trauma of their revelation. Tsotsi’s dark secret, which he suppresses for many years, radically affects him when he begins to remember it.

Fugard is one of South Africa’s most important playwrights, both nationally and internationally. In 2011, he received the Gold Medal of the English Academy of Southern Africa for his outstanding services to literature. He has also received a number of honorary doctorates from universities, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the UK.