A writer of the world : Peter Abrahams's autobiographical texts, South Africa, and world literature

Fossati’s discussion mobilizes and complicates readings of Peter Abrahams’s early life writing narratives—mainly appreciated as documents—by situating them in a world literary frame. Elaborating on Pascale Casanova’s work on the unequal struggle in the circulation of literature in the world republic of letters, Fossati explores Abrahams’s semiautobiographical short story collection Dark Testament and his autobiography Tell Freedom, focusing both on their formal qualities and on the material conditions that enabled their production and circulation. She argues that Abrahams productively blends testimonial writing and experimental traits in his life writing to navigate his complex position as a mission-educated, Black South African writer in prewar London. After exploring Abrahams’s multiple transnational networks, Fossati outlines a tradition of Black South African autobiographical writing in English, inaugurated from abroad by Abrahams himself. Ultimately, Fossati’s discussion foregrounds the continuous and productive dialogue between the fields of world literature, life writing, and postcolonialism.