Description

The X-Kit Achieve! Literature series offers a unique series of visually attractive, high-quality exam preparation tools. The series has been written by top South African educationalists. The books cover all the knowledge and skills tested in the final English Home Language and First Additional Language literature exams for the FET phase. Plot, theme, character, style, symbolism and imagery are all discussed in detail, and thoroughly taught and tested. Study and exam preparation techniques are covered and exam questions provided. Answers are also provided for all the questions to allow learners to monitor their own understanding. This study guide aims to provide you with sufficient support for doing really well in your Grade 11 English examination. This study guide will provide: • All the background information needed for a full understanding of Tsotsi; • Summaries, including a précis of the whole play, plus details of acts and scenes; • Important quotes for use in exams; • An analysis of the play that will help you understand the plot and develop insight and appreciation; • Pointers about the characters for quick and easy revision; • A summary of the key themes; • Comprehensive exam preparation assistance, including test-yourself questions, sample contextual questions and full answers; and • A glossary explaining literature terminology. About the writer, Athol Fugard Fugard studied philosophy, social anthropology and French at the University of Cape Town. However, he had always known that his calling in life was to be a writer. He therefore decided to leave the university before writing his final examinations and hitchhiked through Africa with his friend, the poet Perseus Adams. Fugard then worked on a steamship, the SS Graigaur, for almost two years before returning to Port Elizabeth where he wrote for the Evening Post. Later Fugard moved to Cape Town where he married Sheila Meiring, who had been a Drama student at the University of Cape Town. Through her, Fugard became involved in theatre as an actor, a playwright and a director. In 1958, the Fugards moved to Johannesburg where Fugard worked as a clerk in the Fordsburg Native Commissioner’s Court. This was an eye-opener for him, where he saw the inhuman side of the apartheid system. It was during this time that Fugard got to know Sophiatown, the setting for his one and only novel, Tsotsi. Fugard’s writings are usually set under the shadow of the apartheid system. Although segregation and exploitation of indigenous people in Africa occurred in colonial times, it was the election victory of the National Party in 1948 that introduced the legalised system known as apartheid. Laws were passed where all people in South Africa were classified by race. Black people had to carry a dompas (passbook) wherever they went. In the novel Tsotsi, it is a police passbook raid that leads to the painful events at the heart of the story. Marriages and sex across the colour line were made illegal and various laws were passed that enforced segregation of living areas and schools. Public places such as post offices, lavatories, theatres and cinemas as well as buses and trains were also segregated. Certain parts of the country, amounting to 13% of the total land area, were given so-called “independence” as “homelands” or “bantustans”. However, the vast majority of their so-called “citizens” remained in the “white areas” where they had no rights. They were seen as “temporary” workers by the system even though many had never even been to their so-called “homeland”. Often, those who lived in racially mixed areas were forcibly removed to townships that were usually situated far from the city or town centres. The events in Tsotsi occur at a time when the suburb of Sophiatown was being dismantled, supposedly for “slum clearance” but actually to enforce segregation of the races. Sophiatown was later designated as a white area and re-named Triomf. Fugard’s only novel, Tsotsi, was written between 1959 and 1960 and then laid aside and almost forgotten until its eventual publication in 1980. Later, the novel formed the basis of the film, Tsotsi, which won an Oscar for best foreign film in 2006. Today, Fugard still writes plays that are produced worldwide. He is considered one of South Africa’s best-known playwrights. His stories span the apartheid years; the death of apartheid; the beginning of democracy on 27 April 1994; and have continued right through to our present day, post-apartheid South Africa. This eBook is in ePDF format, which enables you to: • View the entire book offline on desktop or tablet; • Search for and highlight text; and • Add and edit personal notes directly in your eBook.