World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Jack Cope

ジャック・コープ

Jakku Kōpu

Aliases: Robert Knox Cope

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1913-06-03 （Natal Province, South Africa）
Died
1991-05-01 （England） age 77
Nationality
South Africa
Languages
English, Afrikaans
Religion
None
Residence History
Natal → Durban → London → Cape Town → England

Career

Occupations
novelist, short story writer, poet, editor, journalist
Active Years
1948-1991
Affiliations
The Guardian, Contrast

Education

Durban High School
Period: 12歳から
Country: South Africa
Home-schooled before boarding at age 12

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Fair House

1955 Novel

Examines the 1906 Bambata Rebellion to explain later racial and political conditions in South Africa.

racial issuespolitics

The Golden Oriole

1958 Novel

Chronicles the white man's destruction of black culture.

cultural destructionidentity

Albino

1964 Novel

Depicts the struggle of blacks to regain pride and identity.

racial conflict

The Rain-Maker

1971 Novel

Explores African themes amid cultural struggles.

African culture

Bibliography

  • Marie: A South African Satire (1948)
  • The Golden Oriole (1958)
  • The Road To Ysterberg: A Novel (1959)
  • The Penguin Book Of South African Verse (Co-editor) (1968)
  • The Dawn Comes Twice (1969)
  • The Rain-Maker (1971)
  • The Africa We Knew (1973)
  • Lacking A Label (1974)
  • My Son Max (1977)
  • Notes Recorded in Sun (1979)
  • The Adversary Within: Dissident Writers In Afrikaans (1982)

Translations by Author

  • Edited and translated Ingrid Jonker's poems

Style & Themes

Literary Style
concise evocative prosescents, sounds, and colors of South Africa
Recurring Motifs
apartheidracial alienationloneliness

Legacy

Influential South African writer whose short stories captured the apartheid struggle and moral vision.

In Popular Culture

  • Portrayed by Liam Cunningham in 2011 film Black Butterflies about his relationship with Ingrid Jonker.

Trivia

  • Formerly sympathetic to Communism, disillusioned after Khrushchev's Secret Speech.
  • Had a romantic attachment to poet Ingrid Jonker and edited her posthumous anthology.