Geoffrey Haresnape

Geoffrey Haresnape (1939-) is an lecturer, academic researcher and editor, novelist, playwright and poet.

Also referred to as Geoff Haresnape

Biography

Born in Durban in 1939 , he completed an MA in English Literature at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1961) and a PhD at the University of Sheffield, UK, in 1982 with studies of four South African writers, Pauline Smith (MA), Roy Campbell, William Plomer and Laurens van der Post (PhD). Began his teaching career at Rhodes University (1961) and the University of the Witwatersrand (1963–1968) before returning to UCT in 1969 as a Senior Lecturer in English Literature, remaining there until his retirement in 2005 with the title of Emeritus Professor.

His main fields of interest were literary biography, poetry and prose, publishing numerous literary essays in journals. In 2017 he received a Thomas Pringle Award from the English Academy of Southern Africa for his Ad hoc Reviews and Review articles.

He met his wife, Lesley Deeble, in 1957, when they were both UCT undergraduates.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

As playwright

Though his main fields of interest were literary biography, poetry and prose, he also wrote articles on drama, as well as some plays, throughout his career.

Among the plays he wrote have been:

Flying Dutchman (published in Groote Schuur, 8-20, 1957),

The Tempestuous, or With the Bard in Baasland (published in Staffrider, 8(1), 1989),

Some of his Shakespearean items were anthologised in African Tales from Shakespeare (Juta-Gariep, 1999)

As editor

He was deeply involved with editorial work for over sixty years, beginning in the 1950s with his editorial role at the UCT student literary magazine, Groote Schuur, which published the early work of authors like J.M. Coetzee, C.J. Driver, Stephen Gray, Breyten Breytenbach and Adam Small. From 1980 to 1989, he was editor of the influential English literary magazine Contrast and later was also a Creative Writing editor for the English Academy Review.

Other affiliations have been with the English Academy of Southern Africa (he was made an Honorary Vice President), the South African PEN Centre (i.a. as Vice President and Honorary Member)and the Cape Town Branch of the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa.

Sources

http://www.english.uct.ac.za/geoff-haresnape

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