This six-week course will be devoted to reading and discussion of leading works by South African writers of various ethnicities who have chosen to write in English. This distinguished body of literature, which includes works by the Nobel Prizewinners Nadine Gordimer and J.M Coetzee, opens many windows on to the history and culture of this complex, conflicted country. Beginning with Olive Schreiner’s Story of an African Farm (1883), we will read Sol Plaatje’s Mhudi, Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country, J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, Zakes Mda’s Heart of Redness, and Kopano Matlwa’s Coconut. Members of the class will be asked to keep a reading journal, which I will collect and read at the end of the term.