Brijal Oza Assignment

Chetan Bhagat is a popular Indian speaker, columnist in major news dailies, and an author. When he’s not busy writing novels, he serves as a motivational speaker.
Bhagat has authored other bestsellers.
Some of his works include:
• Revolution 2020
• Five Point Someone
• Three Mistakes of My Life
• Two States
He has a very light-hearted and lucid style of writing and his books are often well received, thanks to their cinematic plots and interesting characters. Chetan Bhagat is a graduate from IIT-New Delhi and a post graduate from IIM - Ahmedabad. After enjoying a successful investment banking career, he married Anusha Suryanarayan, whom he met during his post-graduation.

About the novel – One Night @ the Call Center:

                        One Night at the Call center is the novel based on the life of the people of middle class family in India and their problems. It is a story of emotions which shows pity, love, sorrow and ambitions. It denotes to the many aspects of human life. It deals with the expectations of people and the frustration after not fulfilling them.
                        The story of one night at call center moves around six people. Three are male and three and females. All of them are working in a same group in a call center .They all are different from each other but they have a similarity in them that all of them are fed up with their lives and their lives are very messy.
                        This story is about a night at call center which changes the lives of all the people, not lives actually it changes their way of thinking .It changes their way to deal with the problems of their lives. Shyam Mehra is the narrator of the story and is the main character of the story. He is very much confused in his life. He is a very simple boy. He loves Priyanka who has got engaged with Ganesh an NRI boy. He is sad because of it and second thing is that he thinks that his boss has cheated him and Varun.
                        Varun (Vroom) is a friend of Shyam and does not want to do the job but he wants to keep up his standard up so he has to work there. Priyanka mother wants her to marry Ganesh next month but she does not want. She still feels something for Shyam. Later on Shyam tell her about the baldness of Ganesh who hid this from her. Esha Singh or Eliza is an ambitious girl who wants to become a model. She runs away from house and join call center in o red to fulfill her dreams .She does many compromises. But she is bluffed by a man who said her that she is not suitable for being a model.
Her life represents the ambitious middle class youth who are running after blind race of materialism.
                        Radhika call name is Regime Jones. She is married. She is not happy with her mother in law. She loves her husband a lot but when she comes to know that on a radio program he selects another girl over her. She gets very upset. Military uncle is the oldest person in call center but he is living a lonely life. His heart cries for his grandson but he gets more upset when his grandson asks him to stop mailing him.
                        In this way everyone in the call center is fed up with his life but one day at night everyone receives a call from God. God motivates everyone and tells the way to handle their problems. He tells them not to get frustrated by problems. He suggests them to face the problems and to do 100% of efforts. After receiving the call the life of everyone is changed. Everyone starts facing the problem with full of courage and finds out the best solution.
Shaym finally gets his love. Priyanka also refuses to get marry to Ganesh who hid his baldness. Esha starts working for NGOs. Military Uncle also gets his family back at the end.
                        In this way the story of one night at call center is based on facts and fiction. The characters are taken from the real life. They represent the problem of middle class Indians. The story denotes the six different problems of six different people. Priyanka represent the girl in India who has to follow the decision of parents at the matter of marriage. God gives the solution to it and tells her to believe in herself. Military uncle also represent old people who are ditched by the family and it is a common and a serious problem in society. At the end he also gets his family back. The story of the novel is very simple but the call from God makes it interesting. All the characters in it are young except military uncle. The language of the novel is very simple and that is the only reason of its popularity.

About the movie – ‘Hello’:

Hello is a 2008 Bollywood thriller film directed by Atul Agnihotri, starring Sharman Joshi, Sohail Khan, Gul Panag, Isha Koppikar, Amrita Arora and Sharat Saxena in the lead roles. The film is based on Chetan Bhagat's novel, One Night @ the Call Center. It also had cameo roles from Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in the film. It was released on 10 October 2008. Hello had an 'Average' performance at Indian box-office.

Hello... is a tale about the events that happen one night at a call center. Told through the views of the protagonist, Shyam, it is a story of almost lost love, thwarted ambitions, absence of family affection, pressures of a patriarchal set up, and the work environment of a globalized office. Shyam is losing his girlfriend because his career is going nowhere as he trudges his way around in a call center. His girlfriend, Priyanka, is also an agent like him at the call center who is about to be snatched by an NRI techno geek. There is also the aspiring model, Esha, who is hoping for the break that seems to be always already eluding her and the man about town, Vroom, who is into well, things. The housewife, Radhika, who is constantly at the receiving end of her mother-in-law and a beleaguered grandfather, Military Uncle, who has been barred from interacting with his grandchild make up the rest of the call agents who see their worlds crumbling around them as the decisions of right sizing are conveyed by Bakshi, the boss. It is a night when dreams will finally crumble. Or will it? For there is that call from God. Narrated as a tale within a tale as a beautiful woman meets the auteur narrator and promises him a story on the condition that he has to narrate it further, Hello, based on Chetan Bhagat's one night @ the call center, is the one remarkable story from Tales from a Thousand and One globalizing, urban, Indian Nights.

Comparative study of One Night @ the Call Center and Hello Movie:

In comparative study, novel and movie’s basic idea was same. Beginning of the story and way of talking story was also same in movie and novel. But there are minor changes in both. Like,

· One Night @ the Call Center

- Travel in the train

- Writer

- Lady is reading title

- All stories is like a dream

· Hello

- Waiting for Helicopter

- Actor

- Lady is checking mail

-Lady has godlier figure

There are many other changes and similarities in the novel and movie. So, let’s have a look on that.

Title of the novel and movie:

· One Night @ the Call Center

- Story is about six people

- They are working in the call center

· Hello

-One particular incident

-when they have received call from God, ring tone is ‘Hello! Hello!’

Narration:

· Prologue of the Novel

- Language English

- Writer travels Kanpur to Delhi in train

- He meets with beautiful lady in the train

- Praising the beauty of the girl

- He introduce himself

- Marketing of his book

· Opening of the Movie

- Language Hindi

- Salman Khan is on live journey nearby Delhi

-He meets with girls in longue

- Praising the beauty of the lady

- He doesn’t introduce himself

- Does not marketing of the movie

· Epilogue of the Novel

-Lady also asked the Chetan Bhagat, ”Is he make the book?”

-People can’t believe in the story

-She gives solution to him

-God’s speech gives to Military uncle

-Epilogue is also raises the question about the girl

· Ending of the Movie

- Salman also raises Question.

- Here, also people can’t believe in the story

- Lady gives alternative

- Same in the movie

- Lady said, if believe in yourself, you will know the answer

Similarities

-Story of the novel and movie is same.

-All characters are introduced at the opening.

-Name of the characters is same.

-Movie is faithful to the novel.

-At the end lady is disappeared.

Popularity

· Novel

-Novel is more popular than the movie

-Best-selling book

-Consider as block- buster novel

· Movie

-Average movie

-The film was not successful at the box office

The film takes away a lot of criticism for adapting the original episodes that reveals in the book. For example, the example in the book, where Ganesh's photos are found on the net and revealed to Priyanka by Vroom, is missing from the movie, making it difficult to understand why Priyanka comes back to Shyam in the end. There are many such instances which reveal the weakness of the script. The cast also doesn't justify the original characters in the movie. Vroom, in the book is described as a lean tall guy, but is played by Sohail Khan, who is a complete contrast to it. Same applies to the characters like Esha and Priyanka.

The themes involve the worries and uncertainties of the rising Indian middle class, including questions about career, insufficiency, marriage, family conflicts in a changing India, and the relationship of the young Indian middle class to both executives and ordinary clients whom they serve in the United States. There is an aspect of self-help in the book as the author invites readers to identify aspects of themselves and their lives that make them angry and that they would like to change.

Paper - 15, Mass Communication and Media Studies: An Introduction:

To evaluate my assignment

Name: Brijal Oza

Course: M.A. English (Sem-4)

Paper no.: Paper – 15, Mass Communication and Media Studies: An Introduction:

Topic: The Role of Press in 21^st Century

Roll no.: 23

Year: 2015 – 2017

Email ID: brijaloza1994@gmail.com

Submitted to: S.B. Gardi, Department of English

M.K. Bhavnagar University

Role of Press in 21^st Century

Introduction:

Press is more than a media of information. The news may be colored with views and the comments upon the news generally would challenge our options. That is why press plays an important role in democratic country. It can make or break the governments. It can calm down the people or play up their passions, it can help the party in power to strengthen its Position or make the opposition to get the upper hand. Press not only leaves its impact on political life but also affects our social and economic life. It can help in tracing out the criminals. It can give expression to the grievance of the people and it can help the people to attain heir ends.

The press is a broad term now; it not only includes newspapers, new weeklies and magazines but also all the journalists working in the media orient and electronic. It plays great role in the iteration of public opinion. It also acts as a regulator and reflector of the same interacting, between the people and political parties in people. Hence, if the character of the press is healthy, the democratic system will be more transparent to what are the views and reactions of the people in respect thereof. In a democratic society the main task of the pool is to watch the democratic character of the political organization. There are many dangers to the democratic set up. The people in power try to encroach upon the rights of the common man. The people may not be able to enjoy their rights because of the interference of some. The press puts a check upon these types of tendencies by pin pointing the lapses of the party in power. The press can change the opinions of the people and the party becomes unpopular.

Definition of Press:

In a simple meaning, press is the news, media. In that the government cannot interfere with the work of the press.

The press is a broad term now; It is not only includes newspapers, new weeklies and magazines but also all the journalists working in the media orient and electronic.

According to Ban Ki-moon (UN General Secretary):

“A free press gives people access to the information they need to make critical decisions about their lives. It holds leaders accountable, exposes corruption and promotes transparency in decision making. I raise awareness and offer an outlet for different voices, especially those that would otherwise go unheard.”

The press can cultivate political outlook of the people and can help them in consolidating public opinion. Till the people are politically conscious and the people know their own rights and duties, the working of democracy will be chaste. Press can often play negative roles. It may start instigating people against one or the other leader or against the party in power. Under such circumstance the security of the country may be in danger. In such cases people shall not allow the press to have its own way. There should be a more code for the press to follow. The roll of the press can be conductive or destructive. If it plays a constructive role, the political organization will be more in agreement with the interest of the people. It will also stand for justice, mass participations and larger benefits of the people. There is possibility if the journalists are conscious of their duties. But it’s better if the press is independent, responsible and enlightened.

Beginning of Press:

Around 13B.C. in Rome there grew a practice of putting up two handwritten bulletins in the main public square. These bulletins were known as Acta Diurnaa’. It is believed that this was the first newspaper. By the early 19thcentury, many cities in Europe, as well as North and South America, published newspaper-type publications though not all of them developed well content was vastly shaped by regional and cultural preferences. Advances in printing technology enabled newspapers to become an even more widely circulated means of communication.

From 1720 onwards news and views was kept Separate. Industrial Revolution was beneficial to Press as it brought many profitable advertisements. In 17^th century hand written sheets were distributed, this helped in spread of Printing Press. In China, early government-produced news sheet, called Tipao circulated among court officials in 2^nd and 3^rd centuries.

Gazettes were a mid-16^th century Venice phenomenon. They were issued on single sheets, folded to form four pages, and issued every week. The first newspaper in France was published in 1631-La Gazette. The first newspaper in Portugal a Gazeta da Restauracao was published in 1641. The first Spanish newspaper, Gaceta de Madrial was published in 1661. The first newspaper in India was published by James Hicky in January 1780. It was called the Bengal Gazette and it was “weekly political and commercial paper opens to all parties but influenced by none.”

Since then many other newspapers were launched. As more and more Indians started learning English, many became reporters, editors and even owners. The Anglo – Indian press began to lose ground except in Bombay and Calcutta. In 1927, in industrialist G.D Birla took over Hindustan Times and placed it on a sound financial footing. In the same year, S Sedan and started the Free Press Journal, a newspaper for the poor and the middle-class in Mumbai.

Role of Press:

The Press has helped to make our society a democracy by placing emphasis on issues that at one point in time would have been considered strictly private such as child birth, homosexuality, child care, domestic violence, and sexual harassment. To be free for press, as such, is to be fair, impartial, unprejudiced and honest in according treatment to the coverage of news and events connected with different socio-political quarters and the government at large. One of the highest criteria to judge the free press, however, is that it is not subservient to the vested interests and the versions are not tempered, distorted, sponsored, or otherwise politically initiated.

As the world is exposed to several problems during this crisis time, individuals and organizations are expected to make contribution for the betterment of society. It is their responsibility to portray a better image of the world and highlight the problems in such a way that they can be rectified. However, this is not the case in today's world. Profit making media organizations care only about the money they want to make rather than the larger interests of the society. The role of press in recent years has been detrimental for many countries. The press has been constantly presenting news in a fashion which creates negative feelings amongst the audience. It highlights news which it wants to irrespective of the fact what impact would it have on the people. Therefore it would not be wrong to conclude that the press has played a vital role in misleading people.

One of the most popular tools used by the press is sensationalism. What we see is that if any tragedy or event happens, the press would sensationalize it. For instance if a bomb blast happens, the press would show videos and pictures of dead and injured people. This would instigate feelings of fear in the already frightened people. The role of the regulatory bodies has been considerably weak in this regard. Most of the countries have allowed the press full freedom to write or show whatever they want to. Such minimal restrictions give them the freedom to sensationalize events to get a higher TRP.

Another problem with the media is that they show people what they want to see. An already blind general public is exposed to media exploitation. People these days want some spice in the news they read or watch irrespective of the fact that the news is highlighting the proper facts or not. For instance the television media would choose to spend its entire air time to show the wedding ceremony of celebrities but would not show what problems the general public is facing. No doubt that people want some entertainment through the press but the balance has to be maintained between providing entertainment and news.

The press has become so strong that it has the power to control how people think. Most of the general public relates itself to the opinions presented by television anchors or newspaper writers. Not only does it mislead them, it also dampens their power to think and analyze. The news captivates you in such a way that it almost becomes impossible to form an individual and unbiased opinion about an occurrence.

The press has also played a negative role in the upbringing of young children. By signifying violence all the time they have poisoned the minds of young children who might grow up to choose the wrong path as highlighted by the media. Instead of explaining to the public that acts of violence should be strongly condemned, they give the impression that only those who choose the wrong way are able to succeed in this world while other government authorities which are responsible for handling the affairs of the country are a total failure.

It is high time that the press realizes that there are things in this world which are more important than money. Rather than being heartless souls, they should be a representation of the people's voice and opinions. They are to take steps for the benefit of their country and act as responsible organizations. The power to control people is in their hands but how do they use that power is a question that needs to be answered.

There are five things for role of Press:

1. Sharing Information

2. Generating Debate

3. Act as people’s mouthpiece

4. Opinion builder

5. Social Reformer

1. Sharing Information:

Press is linked through news agencies all over the world. This agencies share all the information among them. This way important news reaches us within no time. While sharing information Press has to obey the norms of particular country. For healthy environment in the world sharing information is necessary.

2. Generating Debate:

We watch and listen a lot on various issues in media. Political social, religious, pollution, communal, environmental, defense related issues sports related issues, issues related to the basic requirements of the people, price hike issues, health scams and scandals issues, education and many more are discussed and thus imports knowledge on various subjects.

3. Social Reformer:

Press has a very vital responsibility to guard the rights and liberty of people. Press raises issues related to rights and liberty. It awakens the people who are victims of injustice in any case and helps them in getting justice.

4. Act as people‛s mouth piece:

The Press gives opportunity to people to express their opinions. Through press we express our views to public. It raises our problems through various devices of Press. Your voice reaches to the mass through Press so one can say that it‛s people‛s mouth piece.

5. Opinion Builder:

Press being widely popular, people believe in what it says. Press allows debates. Scholars from various fields are invited for debate. People get their opinions on various issues. This allows us to build our own opinion.

Importance of press in Democracy:

Freedom of the press refers to freedom of speech and expression which is and always should be fundamental right. Without this right the liberty of man is not complete. A country pledged to democracy must ensure that its citizens enjoy a free and daily press. Press keeps a constant vigil on the liberty of the people. To remove any government or to fight against dictatorship, anarchy and malpractices press serves the best. In the communist countries, press is under Government control. Even in democracies against any media may snatch freedom.

Media through its various means of newspapers, television and cinema is what rules the heart and minds of people. For instance, the ads by IDEA Cellular and the TATA group promoting education for all, democracy by voting through short Message Service- SMS, the ‘Jaago India’ slogans are perhaps not only charming the public but also have a huge impact on their minds. The Press has helped to make our society a democracy by placing emphasis on issues that at one point in time would have been considered strictly private such as child birth, homosexuality, child care, domestic violence, and sexual harassment.

Coverage of exploitative malpractice by corrupted officials has helped in taking stringent actions against them by attracting the government’s attention. One of the most disturbing coverage was the story of Geetanjali Nagpal, a onetime booming model, who was found begging on the streets of Delhi. It was media, the first one to spot her and help her in recovery. The most horrible explosion that is, the Mumbai terror attack, commonly abbreviated as 26/11 was an outrageous incident experienced by India. Media reported this incident every second.

Press Council of India:

The Press Council of India was first constituted on 4th July, 1966 as an autonomous, statutory, quasi-judicial body, with Shri Justice J R Mudholkar, then a Judge of the Supreme Court, as Chairman. In our country, press council of India (PCI) has the power to warn stop and censor any work that flouts the standards of press. The Press Council of India takes care of the press codes and press ethics, PCI is an institute consisting of 28 members representing owners of the newspapers, news agencies, journalists, educationalists, legal experts on various subjects.

Paper - 14, The African Literature

To evaluate my assignment

Name: Brijal Oza

Course: M.A. English (Sem-4)

Paper no.: Paper – 14, the African Literature

Topic: Comparison between Indian Literature and African Literature

Roll no.: 23

Year: 2015 – 2017

Email ID: brijaloza1994@gmail.com

Submitted to: S.B. Gardi, Department of English

M.K. Bhavnagar University

Comparison between Indian Literature and African Literature

What is Indian Literature and African Literature:

Indian Literature: The term Indian literature is used here to refer to literature produced across the Indian subcontinent prior to the creation of the Republic of India in 1947 and within the Republic of India after 1947.

African Literature: African literature is literature of or from Africa and includes oral literature. "Literature" can be the part of Asian also implies an artistic use of words for the sake of art alone. Traditionally, Africans do not radically separate art from teaching. Rather than write or sing for beauty in itself, African writers, taking their cue from oral literature, use beauty to help communicate important truths and information to society. Indeed, an object is considered beautiful because of the truths it reveals and the communities it helps to build.

Similarities between Africa and India:
- Both have tropical climates
- Both had ancient civilizations before the rest of the world.
- Both were colonized by Europeans (British, French, Portuguese) where they couldn't outnumber the natives and therefore.
- Both have light skinned people in the north and dark skinned people in the south.
- Both have a sizeable Muslim population.
- Both have tropical rainforests and deserts.
- Both have a diverse population.
- Both have the most well-known elephants.
- Both have poverties.
- Both have conflicts.
- They are some of the most populated places in the world (Since Africa includes all African countries). India is technically the second most populated country in the world.

- Very multicultural in many ways, ranging from cuisine to architecture to clothing and religion.

- Mostly have dark skin.

- Both have deserts and forests.

- Both are home to native elephants and tigers.

- Both have camels.

- Religion plays an important role in both places.

- Both are peninsular
- Both were ruled by British.
- Both had ancient civilizations (Egypt & India)
- Both have tropical climates.
- India is considered to be a sub-continent and Africa a dark continent
- Both people have similar skin colour

Differences between India and Africa:

- India is a country; Africa is a continent (With many counties inside).

- Curry is widely consumed around India, but not in Africa.

- India has president, while different African countries have different leadership (Some are ruled by dictators).

- Majority of Indians are Hindu. As for Africa, I think its Islam (But im not so sure about this.).

Comparison between Indian Literature and African Literature:

Indian literature is generally believed to be the oldest in the world. With vast cultural diversities, there are around two dozen officially recognized languages in India. Over thousands of years, huge literature has been produced in various languages in India. It is to be noted that a large part of Indian literature revolves around devotion, drama, poetry and songs. Sanskrit language dominated the early Indian literary scene whereas languages like Prakrit and Pali too had fair share as they were the languages of the common people. It is interesting to note that the Hindu literary traditions have dominated a large part of Indian culture. These traditions are well reflected in great works like Vedas and epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata. Treatises like Vaastu Shastra (architecture), Arthashastra (political science) and Kamsutra are true reflection of the Indian literary excellence. Early Hindi literature, in dialects like Avadhi and Brai, began around religious and philosophical poetry in medieval period. Sant Kabir and Tulsidas were the greatest exponents of the Hindi literature during this period. With the passage of time, the Khadi boli (dialect) became more prominent and saw a great upsurge, which continues to this day. During the medieval period, Muslim literary traditions dominated a large part of Indian literature and saw flourishing of Muslim literature. Muslim rule during the medieval times saw rapid growth and development of Persian and Urdu literature in India. A huge variety of literature spanning across history, culture and politics was written in this period.

With the coming of the British in India, works started to be written in English language. As more and more Indians became well versed with the English language, the number of works in English literature began to grow. During the contemporary times, numerous Indian authors have made their mark on the world English literature scene. Some of the most noted Indian born or Indian writers are R. K. Narayan, Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Khushwant Singh, Anita Desai and Jhumpa Lahiri.

Indian literature, through its umpteen legends and folklores in prehistoric times, is today unanimously recognized and acknowledged as one of the oldest in the world. India possesses twenty-two officially accredited languages and a colossal variety of literature has been produced and reproduced in these languages over the graduating years. It, thus, becomes evident that the history of Indian literature assimilates within itself an endless variety of untold stories and facts from ancient, medieval and comparatively modern times, which can be personified as a living entity.

History of literature in India can be smoothly divided into three periods, comprising of the ancient, the medieval and modern or contemporary. The period of the ancient Indian literature can be delineated by those very first orally transmitted (shruti) valuable treatises in the guru-shishya mode, which gradually were replaced and revived in the Vedic Period, denoting just the commencement of Golden Age in India, through Sanskrit literature. Second in line was to arrive the era of Medieval Indian literature, which witnessed a shift towards much more religious zealousness in regional divisions, although Sanskrit still was retained as the essential penmanship language. Among the best known works re-delineating history of Indian literature and its inherent involvement with present Indian scenario, Kalidasa and Tulsidas (legendary for his epic Hindi poem based on the Ramayana, named the Ramcharitmanas) top the ancient and medieval times.

The history of Indian literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry, which aim at providing education, entertainment and enlightenment to its readers, as well the development of the literary techniques employed in the communication of these pieces.

The study of the development of African literature leads to various reflections on the future of the continent and its population. Self-knowledge and consciousness of one’s cultural identity are two major factors in the process of affirmation of one’s personality. To share these values with the other continents of the globe is essential for the Africans whose culture and civilization have been denied or rejected during many centuries.

African literature is highly diversified, even though it shows some similarities. In fact, the common denominator of the cultures of the African continent is undoubtedly the oral tradition. Writing on black Africa started in the middle Ages with the introduction of the Arabic language and later, in the nineteenth century with introduction of the Latin alphabet. Since 1934, with the birth of the "Negritude," African authors began to write in French or in English. Since the 1960’s quantitative and qualitative changes could be observed in the field of publication in both Francophone and Anglophone states.

African literature consists of a body of work in different languages and various genres, ranging from oral literature to literature written in colonial languages (French, Portuguese, and English). Oral literature, including stories, dramas, riddles, histories, myths, songs, proverbs, and other expressions, is frequently employed to educate and entertain children. Oral histories, myths, and proverbs additionally serve to remind whole communities of their ancestors' heroic deeds, their past, and the precedents for their customs and traditions. Essential to oral literature is a concern for presentation and oratory. Folktale tellers use call-response techniques. A griot (praise singer) will accompany a narrative with music.

Since the early 19th cent. Writers from western Africa have used newspapers to air their views. Several founded newspapers that served as vehicles for expressing nascent nationalist feelings. French-speaking Africans in France, led by Léopold Senghor, were active in the négritude movement from the 1930s, along with Léon Damas and Amie Césaire, French speakers from French Guiana and Martinique. Their poetry not only denounced colonialism, it proudly asserted the validity of the cultures that the colonials had tried to crush.

After World War II, as Africans began demanding their independence, more African writers were published. Such writers as, in western Africa, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Osman Sembene, Kofi Awooner, Agostinho Neto, and Tchicaya u tam'si, Camera Laye, Mongo Beti, Ben Okra, and Ferdinand Oyono and, in eastern Africa, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Okot p'Bitek, and Jacques Rabémananjara produced poetry, short stories, novels, essays, and plays. All were writing in European languages, and often they shared the same themes: the clash between indigenous and colonial cultures, condemnation of European subjugation, pride in the African past, and hope for the continent's independent future. In South Africa, the horrors of apartheid have, until the present, dominated the literature. Esaki Mphahlele, Nadine Gordimer, Bessie Head, Dennis Brutus, J. M. Coetzee, and Miriam Tlali all reflect in varying degrees in their writings the experience of living in a racially segregated society.