Transcultural memory and intertextuality in Fred Khumalo’s seven steps to heaven
Masemola, Kgomotso
Enriching the mise-en-scene of a South Africa in transition with everything ranging from the music of the famous Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes troupe and South African trio dubbed ‘Joy’ to movie titles, this novel by Fred Khumalo is propelled forth by its play on theambitions of a young black struggling writer and the vicissitudes of the publishing world
which, by chance, celebrates his postmodern novel-within-a-novel The Oneness of Two in
Three and a prize-winning trans-cultural short story called “Ramu the Hermit”. This
experimentation, however, simultaneously holds up and tests the virtues of the writing
vocation exemplified by great poets of the Irish town of Limerick in a space where all things avant garde enjoy commercial success.
↧