Tsotsi Athol Fugard
Tsotsi Athol Fugard “Tsotsi” is the Afrikaans word for young thugs who rule the township streets of South Africa. This is the “name” of Athol Fugard’s young protagonist. He is mysterious, shadowy, has no name; has no past, family, or friends, or at least no recollections of every belonging anywhere or to anyone. Tsotsi by Athol Fugard - Goodreads. Tsotsi is based on the novel by the same name written by accomplished South African playwright Athol Fugard. Fugard had started the novel after the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, during which 69 people protesting pass laws restricting the movement of black South Africans were shot by apartheid police. Although Athol Fugard has written in a variety of literary forms, he is known primarily for his plays. Tsotsi, a long-lost novel written between 1959 and 1960 and abandoned until its publication in. Athol Fugard as a writer and the historical context2 3. Tsotsi as a novel and Tsotsi as a film - a direct comparison3 3.a. Author: Athol Fugard.
“Tsotsi is a real find, by one of the most affecting and moving writers of our time” (Financial Times)–and the novel is now being reissued to coincide with the release of a feature film, which is already being compared to 2004’s runaway hit City of God
One of the world’s preeminent playwrights “who could be a primary candidate for either the Nobel Prize in Literature or the Nobel Peace Prize” (Mel Gussow, The New Yorker), Athol Fugard is renowned for his relentless explorations of personal and political survival in apartheid South Africa–which include his now classic plays Master Harold . . . and the Boys and The Blood Knot. Fugard has written a single novel, Tsotsi, which director Gavin Hood has made into a feature film that The Times (London) calls “a remarkable achievement” and is South Africa’s official entry for the 2006 Academy Awards.
Set amid the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto, where survival is the primary objective, Tsotsi traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader. When we meet Tsotsi, he is a man without a name (tsotsi is Afrikaans for “hoodlum”) who has repressed his past and now exists only to stage and execute vicious crimes. When he inadvertently kidnaps a baby, Tsotsi is confronted with memories of his own painful childhood, and this angry young man begins to rediscover his own humanity, dignity, and capacity to love.
Tsotsi By Athol Fugard
| Date of Birth | 11-June-1932 | |
| Place of Birth | Middelburg, Eastern Cape (South Africa, Eastern Cape) | |
| Nationality | South Africa, United States of America | |
| Also know as | Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard | |
| Profession | Writer, Playwright, Novelist, Actor, Teacher, Theatre Director, Screenwriter | |
| Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English. He is best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy Award-winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood. Fugard is an adjunct professor of playwriting, acting and directing in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego. For the academic year 2000–2001, he was the IU Class of 1963 Wells Scholar Professor at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. The recipient of many awards, honours, and honorary degrees, including the 2005 Order of Ikhamanga in Silver 'for his excellent contribution and achievements in the theatre' from the government of South Africa, he is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. | ||