Christopher Heywood surveys representative South African poems, plays and prose works in five literary traditions: Khoisan, Nguni-Sotho, Afrikaans, English, and Indian. Heywood's selections include over 100 authors and selected works--covering poetry, theater and prose. Explored in the context of crises leading to the formation of modern South Africa, South African literature emerges from this study as one of the great literatures of the modern world.