Jacobson, Dan

(South African, 1929– )

After completing his studies at the University of Witwatersrand, Jacobson left South Africa, eventually settling in London where he has become a prominent writer and critic. Most of his writing concerns itself with South Africa under the apartheid regime. In A Dance in the Sun (1956) characters range from the white boss, struggling to maintain his authority, to the recalcitrant black servant. The novel centres on two travelling students who are constantly forced, as they witness the complexities of race relations, to confront their liberal beliefs. Like Her Story (1987), a parable of the Virgin Mary, A Dance in the Sun gestures towards biblical stories. The two Africans, for example, are named Joseph and Mary. The Evidence of Love (1959) is an elegiac story of two young lovers, one coloured, one white, who, after meeting in London, return to South Africa. In a dramatic climax, they find themselves up against the draconian laws of the South African state.

Nadine Gordimer, Alan Paton, J. M. Coetzee  EW