![]() For Viljoen, Rive’s commitment to nonracialism is what makes his writing so powerful. Rive believed race is a construct created by colonialists to justify apartheid, and it has no place in modern society. Rive passionately rejected racialism, meaning he believed there is no such thing as different human races. Although he introduces readers to the various sides of Rive’s psyche, it is impossible to ever know him truly.Ī careful re-examination of Rive’s work means exploring nonracialism. Viljoen believes Rive masked inner loneliness and unhappiness with his brash, exuberant outer personality. ![]() Although he spoke loudly against racism and campaigned strongly for human justice, he was, in private, a very quiet and introverted man. Rive embodied all manner of contradictions. We are only now scratching the surface of Rive’s true personality and appreciating the full complexity of his work. Again, Viljoen reminds readers why he calls the book a “partial” biography. We’re free now, post-apartheid, to properly explore Rive’s work and the work of his contemporaries. Modern audiences, Viljoen claims, can appreciate these struggles, which make Rive seem more relatable. Rive struggled with queerness and sexual identity. The issue here, Viljoen explains, is that by refusing to acknowledge these elements in Rive’s stories, we are denying the truth of who he really was. For example, it wasn’t possible to promote queer and homosexual elements in Rive’s stories pre-apartheid, because linking Rive with homosexuality was defamatory. Viljoen believes it is possible to analyze Rive’s writing now in ways that were almost impossible under apartheid. He worries that there is less interest in pre-1994 South African literature than there should be, and he hopes that introducing young readers to Rive through work like “‘Buckingham Palace,’ District Six” will reinvigorate a general interest in earlier writing. For example, Viljoen considers how we can separate South African literature into pre-1994 and post-1994 literature, following the significant 1994 elections. Although Richard Rive is primarily a biography, it also reflects upon South African social history more generally. Viljoen credits the story with exposing the realities of apartheid and solidifying Rive’s place as a leading South African writer. He wrote about the problems with the area in “‘Buckingham Palace,’ District Six,” a story with which younger readers are most familiar. ![]() As a black male deeply affected by this social change, it’s unsurprising, Viljoen notes, that Rive explored District Six in so much detail through his writing. By 1966, however, the Nationalist government turned District Six into a whites-only area. ![]() When Rive grew up in District Six, it was a lively, cosmopolitan area where black and white people lived comfortably beside each other. Rive was born in District Six, a residential district just beyond central Cape Town. The first part of the book briefly touches on Rive’s early life. Viljoen discusses Rive’s writing in detail, highlighting what it reveals about his views on race, color, and sexuality. During this period, he also edited numerous African authors and he wrote his own memoir. He wrote most of his short stories, novels, plays, and critical articles between 19. Viljoen first offers readers some background information on Rive’s literary work. Viljoen takes readers through the most politically and socially active decades of Rive’s life to reveal new ways of appreciating this complicated man. While Rive is known for his short stories and literary achievements, it is less known how deeply he struggled with issues of homosexuality and nonracialism. Viljoen explores Rive’s life from the 1950s until his murder in 1989, introducing readers to the complexity of Rive’s personality. In 2007, he completed his doctorate on Richard Rive, which he later adapted into this published biography. A South African author and scriptwriter, Viljoen studied English at the University of Cape Town before taking over the English Department at Stellenbosch University. Critics praise the book for its insightful look at apartheid and its depiction of the concept of nonracialism. Shaun Viljoen’s Richard Rive: A Partial Biography (2014) is about the prominent South African writer, literary critic, and scholar Richard Rive.
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