Product Description

The democratic election of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa in 1994 marked the demise of apartheid and the beginning of a new struggle to define the nation's past. "History After Apartheid" analyzes how, in the midst of the momentous shift to an inclusive democracy, South Africa's visual and material culture represented the past while at the same time contributing to the very process of social transformation. Considering attempts to invent and recover historical icons and narratives, art historian Annie E Coombes examines how strategies for embodying different models of historical knowledge and experience are negotiated in public culture - in monuments, museums and contemporary fine art. "History After Apartheid" explores the dilemmas posed by a wide range of visual and material culture including key South African heritage sites.How prominent should Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress be in the museum at the infamous political prison on Robben Island? How should the post-apartheid government deal with the Voortrekker Monument mythologizing the Boer Trek of 1838? Coombes highlights the contradictory investment in these sites among competing constituencies and the tensions involved in the rush to produce new histories for the 'new' South Africa. She reveals how artists and museum officials struggled to adequately represent painful and difficult histories ignored or disavowed under apartheid - including slavery, homelessness and the attempted destruction of KhoiSan hunter-gatherers. Describing how contemporary South African artists address historical memory and the ambiguities uncovered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Coombes illuminates a body of work dedicated to the struggle to simultaneously remember the past and move forward into the future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #187919 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"[I]nteresting and unusual... [A] valuable resource for art history students and professionals."--Foreign Affairs "This book will be of interest to many students of anthropology, sociology, art history, geography, museum studies, and urban studies."--Andrea Dahlberg, Leonardo "[I]mportant and timely... History after Apartheid will give readers a better understanding not only of why the difficulties persist but also of why there is still cause for optimism that many South African citizens will continue to offer their hands to one another."--Jeff Kelly Lowenstein, The Common Review "[A] fascinating overview of post-apartheid visual arts..."--Peter Whittaker, New Internationalist "[A] timely and important engagement with the role that visual and material culture has played, and continues to play, in the country's transformation in the post-apartheid era... History After Apartheid is an engaging read, quite generously illustrated with photographs of the sites under discussion... While the work deals specifically with issues around public memory in South Africa, the issues it examines are more broadly relevant to any society in transition. The work is very accessible and should also have wider appeal to scholars in public history, sociology, politics and visual culture."-- Barbara Russell, Eras "Annie Coombes is one of those gifted intellectuals who combine authority and analytical precision with obvious pleasure and excitement about the subject. This makes for stimulating and accessible reading. History after Apartheid is able to address a wider audience than academia without losing its rigour and integrity. This book is sorely needed for a new growth industry driven by bite-sized catchphrases that do not bear much scrutiny."--Sue Krige, African Affairs "This is a sensitively written exposition of aspects of memory, identity and their relationship to visual and material culture, in which the writer, an art historian, ranges widely, taking a comparative approach in her methodology, providing the reader with insightful contrasts from a variety of societies, ranging from Russia to Australia... [T]he treatment in the book is critical and thoughtful... A major strength is that the author grapples with debates, discusses priorities and persuades the reader to think in a challenging way about how aspects of history are presented."--Alan Cousins, History "[A] well-written and very engaging book... [A]n enjoyable book that underlies the importance of history as a narrative constructed for an audience, which the audience then uses in the construction of their own popular consciousness."--Sean Redding, Journal of African History "Annie Coombes's task was awesome. This book is intensively researched and needed to be written."--Robin M. Chandler, African Studies Review "Stimulating."-- Verne Harris, The Public Historian