Elizabeth le Roux

Pre- and Post-Copulatory Mate Selection Mechanisms in an African Dung Beetle, Circellium bacchus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

Females of most taxa mate selectively. Mate selection may be: (1) pre-copulatory, involving active female choice and male-male competition, and (2) post-copulatory, with cryptic female choice and sperm competition. Because female dung beetles (Circellium bacchus) invest heavily in parental care by ball-rolling and remaining with developing larva they are, therefore, expected to be highly selective when mating. Mate choice in this species was investigated via behavioral observations and investigations of genital allometry of both sexes, leading to conclusions about the mechanisms of, and male characteristics important in, female choice. Male–male competition seems to be crucial in mate selection of C. bacchus, although the females appeared to show no active mate choice. There is a negative allometric relationship between genital size and body size of males as predicted by the ‘one size fits all’ hypothesis (where males have genitalia that fit average-sized females). For the females, no relationship was found between genital size and body size. This might be as a result of the non-sclerotized nature of female genitalia, which may allow for greater morphological plasticity.

Book History in the African World: The State of the Discipline

African print culture has not been widely studied from a historical perspective. Many studies focus on the present, without interrogating the historical developments that led to the present situation. We do find information available on what has been published over time, but little attention has been paid to the material forms of texts, their distribution, marketing, readership, or impact. Much earlier work is also largely descriptive. It is only recently—in the past ten years or so—that theoretical models of book history have begun to influence studies in this field. This essay is the first attempt to organize book historical studies in an African context. While this survey cannot be considered comprehensive, given the scope of the continent and its research, it presents a sampling of the most significant work and highlights trends.

The production and reception of Deon Meyer’s works : an evaluation of the factors contributing to bestseller status

Abstract Deon Meyer is a household name in South Africa as a bestselling crime fiction author. This article explores how and why Meyer’s career has evolved in the way that it has, in an attempt to answer the question of what has made him so successful. The focus is not, like so much academic analysis of fiction, on the form or content of Meyer’s work, but rather on the wider social context, and in particular the publishing and reception history of this author. In particular, attention is paid to a few key success factors: the role of the literary agent, the building of international market awareness through the sale of English-language translation and other subsidiary rights, literary awards, and branding decisions. With careful branding, a marketable personality, media exposure and well-chosen paratext, the “Deon Meyer” legend has been able to reach bestselling status.

‘Unique perspectives on South Africa’: imagining South Africa through the Homebru book marketing campaign, 2002–2012

Abstract Publishers’ and booksellers’ marketing campaigns are aimed at ‘target audiences’ – groups of potential book buyers who can be demographically and geographically segmented. This segmentation is not always overt, but in the case of a ‘buy local’ campaign, it becomes so. One example is the ‘Homebru’ promotion run annually by South Africas biggest trade bookseller, Exclusive Books. The campaign aims to promote South African publishing, and as a result has inevitably been seen as promoting token local works for commercial purposes. Marketers for Exclusive Books argue that Homebru holds a mirror up to the local publishing scene, but this discourse of reflection and uniqueness conceals the careful construction of a certain reality. The 2012 campaign, titled ‘Unique perspectives on South Africa’, had a deliberate emphasis on the environment and landscape of the country. The marketing poster featured a photograph of a South African township, but its realism masks the fact that this is certainly not the milieu of the average local book buyer. This article examines the changing imagining of South African identity and space, as constructed over the past ten years in the Homebru campaign. The marketing materials and their messages – both textual and visual – are analysed for insights into their discursive framing of the spatial reality of South Africa and, indeed, South Africans. The article thus examines how the consumption and reception of post-apartheid South African books are mediated by paratextual elements.AbstractPublishers’ and booksellers’ marketing campaigns are aimed at ‘target audiences’ – groups of potential book buyers who can be demographically and geographically segmented. This segmentation is not always overt, but in the case of a ‘buy local’ campaign, it becomes so. One example is the ‘Homebru’ promotion run annually by South Africas biggest trade bookseller, Exclusive Books. The campaign aims to promote South African publishing, and as a result has inevitably been seen as promoting token local works for commercial purposes. Marketers for Exclusive Books argue that Homebru holds a mirror up to the local publishing scene, but this discourse of reflection and uniqueness conceals the careful construction of a certain reality. The 2012 campaign, titled ‘Unique perspectives on South Africa’, had a deliberate emphasis on the environment and landscape of the country. The marketing poster featured a photograph of a South African township, but its realism masks the fact that this is certainly not the mi...

Concepts of reading in South African reading promotion campaigns

Amid ongoing concerns about the reading decline, the lack of a “reading culture” and children not reading enough, a variety of solutions are put forward, largely in the form of reading promotion campaigns. These campaigns are seldom sustainable, usually owing to sporadic funding. However, this paper considers whether another factor that affects the sustainability of such campaigns has to do with how they are conceptualised, and whether it is a mismatch between aims and outcomes. Working from a theoretical perspective of the social uses of literacy, the paper examines discourses around reading and how they reflect certain dominant ideologies, social meanings and values. Based on a content analysis of the main publicity, communications and speeches associated with some of the dominant reading promotion campaigns in South Africa, the paper examines the words and images being used to promote reading, and how these affect the evaluation of such reading campaigns.

Introduction: Print Culture in Southern Africa

Research into print culture studies in Africa has largely been dominated by histories of how European missionaries, colonial administrators and traders brought the book and literacy to Africa, by what Isabel Hofmeyr describes as ‘the idea of the imperial gift’. Indeed, Africa has been marginalised within the discipline of book history, and has been either omitted or assigned only the briefest mention in the major book history companions, dictionaries and readers, while histories of British publishers routinely overlook their profitable enterprises in Africa. As a result, a number of gaps and silences remain. This collection addresses some important issues that have been widely neglected; the focus here is on black southern African writing, publishing and readerships, in contrast with the often white-dominated narrative of print culture, even within African scholarship. Print culture holds important implications for questions of identity, nationality and colonial or post-colonial politics, and, as David Johnson states, there is a need for close attention to ‘how “print, text and book cultures” have functioned and continue to function within South Africa’s vastly unequal political economy’. Drawing together interdisciplinary research and diverse methodologies, this journal special issue encompasses a range of perspectives, including literary studies, anthropology, publishing studies, the history of the book, art history and information science. Many of the articles are based on previously unexamined archives and collections, for example authors’, publishers’ and state archives, and oral history research. They are, thus, evidence-based histories that uncover previously unacknowledged or unheard voices and that counter the anecdotal nature of much research on African publishing and print culture. This work has its origins in the British Academy project ‘Print Culture and Publishing in South Africa in the 20th Century’ (2012–16), based at Oxford Brookes University and the University of Pretoria and led by the guest editors of this volume. This project promoted research into the emergence and constitution of reading publics in the country, the trans-regional networks of print, and the impact of the transnational book trade. A programme of colloquia and seminars in the UK and South Africa brought together international scholars from both regions as fora for multi-disciplinary research. Many of the articles in this issue are based on papers presented in the final three conferences of the project: Print Culture and Colonisation in Africa at the University of Cape Town (May 2015), the Annual Book History and Print Culture seminar at the University of Pretoria (May 2016), and the Print Culture and Publishing in Africa colloquium at Oxford Brookes University (September 2016).

Miriam Tlali and Ravan Press : politics and power in literary publishing during the apartheid period

In a committed anti-apartheid publisher like Ravan Press in the 1970s and 1980s, the selection of authors was usually based on political or ideological grounds as well as the quality of their writing. As a result, Ravan was harassed and subjected to censorship. But to what extent did Ravan’s social position and capital inform the author–publisher relationship? One relatively well-known case is that of Miriam Tlali, described as ‘the first black woman to publish a novel in South Africa’. Tlali’s account of her relationship with Ravan has been described in very negative terms. However, her account changed over time and is not supported by other evidence. Based on archival sources and interviews, this article will explore the relationship between Tlali and Ravan Press, raising questions of the politics and power dynamics of literary publishing in the apartheid period. The article also raises questions about the methods used to write literary history.In a committed anti-apartheid publisher like Ravan Press in the 1970s and 1980s, the selection of authors was usually based on political or ideological grounds as well as the quality of their writing. As a result, Ravan was harassed and subjected to censorship. But to what extent did Ravan’s social position and capital inform the author–publisher relationship? One relatively well-known case is that of Miriam Tlali, described as ‘the first black woman to publish a novel in South Africa’. Tlali’s account of her relationship with Ravan has been described in very negative terms. However, her account changed over time and is not supported by other evidence. Based on archival sources and interviews, this article will explore the relationship between Tlali and Ravan Press, raising questions of the politics and power dynamics of literary publishing in the apartheid period. The article also raises questions about the methods used to write literary history.

Between the Cathedral and the Market: A Study of Wits University Press

University presses are often said to lie between the ‘cathedral’ and the ‘market’.1 What this means is that they have to balance the symbolic capital of knowledge production and the economic capital of commercial viability, to use Bourdieusian terms.2 South Africa’s four university presses now find themselves in this position, but historically they were not: cushioned by subventions, they did not compete with commercial publishers, and, at the same time, their role was more supportive and service-oriented than acquisitive or interventionist. In addition, the balance was complicated by a third pressure, which assumed overwhelming significance in this country: the political. The motivation of those opposing apartheid was neither profit nor prestige, but activism for the purpose of political change — a significant difference.

A Social History of the University Presses in Apartheid South Africa

In A History of the University Presses in Apartheid South Africa , Elizabeth le Roux examines the origins, publishing lists and philosophies of the university presses, as well as academic freedom and knowledge production, during the apartheid era.

Open minds and closed systems: an author profile of South Africa’s university presses

AbstractThe selection of authors for publication is a gatekeeping function. While in the case of academic journals the gatekeeper is usually identified with the editor and the editorial board, books are usually selected by the publishing house that will produce and disseminate them. This article aims to provide an overview of author selection at South Africa’s most prominent scholarly publishers, its university presses, through a case study of the author profiles of Wits, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), Unisa and Cape Town. This profile is an attempt to provide basic data to underpin perceptions of discrimination in the selection of books for publication. The author profile of the university presses shows some change over time, towards greater diversity in terms of both race and gender. But women and black authors – and black women authors especially – remain under-represented.Abstract The selection of authors for publication is a gatekeeping function. While in the case of academic journals the gatekeeper is usually identified with the editor and the editorial board, books are usually selected by the publishing house that will produce and disseminate them. This article aims to provide an overview of author selection at South Africa’s most prominent scholarly publishers, its university presses, through a case study of the author profiles of Wits, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), Unisa and Cape Town. This profile is an attempt to provide basic data to underpin perceptions of discrimination in the selection of books for publication. The author profile of the university presses shows some change over time, towards greater diversity in terms of both race and gender. But women and black authors – and black women authors especially – remain under-represented.