In this reflection on his recently published book, Hedley Twidle explores historical and theoretical approaches to the question of non-fiction in South African literature. Experiments with Truth reads the country's transition as refracted through an array of documentary modes that are simultaneously refashioned and blurred into each other: long-form analytic journalism and reportage; experiments in oral history, microhistory and archival reconstruction; life-writing, memoir and the personal essay. Its case studies trace the strange and ethically complex process by which actual people, places and events are shuffled, patterned and plotted in long-form prose narrative. While holding in mind the imperatives of testimony and witness so important to the struggle for liberation and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the book is increasingly drawn to a post-TRC aesthetic: to works that engage with difficult, inappropriate or unusable elements of the past, and with the unfinished project of social reconstruction in South Africa. It places southern African materials in a global context, and in dialogue with other important nonfictional traditions that have emerged at moments of social rupture and transition.

中文翻译：

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真相实验：南非的非虚构叙事

在对他最近出版的书的反思中，Hedley Twidle 探讨了南非文学中非小说类问题的历史和理论方法。真相实验通过一系列纪录片模式折射出这个国家的转型，这些模式同时被重新塑造和相互模糊：长篇分析新闻和报告文学；口述历史、微观历史和档案重建实验；生活写作、回忆录和个人散文。它的案例研究追溯了一个奇怪的、伦理上复杂的过程，在这个过程中，真实的人物、地点和事件在长篇散文叙事中被打乱、模式化和情节化。在牢记证词和证人的必要性对解放斗争和真相与和解委员会如此重要的同时，这本书越来越被后 TRC 美学所吸引：作品涉及过去的困难、不适当或无法使用的元素，以及南非未完成的社会重建项目。它将南部非洲的材料置于全球背景下，并与在社会破裂和转型时刻出现的其他重要的非虚构传统进行对话。