THE GÉRARD VISIT: IMPRESSIONS AND COMMENTS

Abstract

The visit resulted from his Four African Literature: Xhosa, Southern Sotho, Zulu, Amharic, various other publications, private correspondence and from an interview during a short visit to Europe in 1975. The main objectives of his visit were to inform local scholars about his approach to comparative literature and literary history, as well as to promote the vernacular literatures from both the creative and scholarly sides. His publications and lectures together conveyed the necessity that local scholars should participate in historical-comparative work, and that comparison should be done on the widest possible scale. The present writer argues that this ideal does not discharge the vernacular scholar from the responsibility to describe and evaluate the literature he knows best. For this it is imperative that he should come to grips with scholarly practices in Africa and the outside world. On the short term Gérard's visit is bound to foster profound introspection, while on the medium and long term, vernacular literatures can only benefit by implementing the numerous suggestions he made at various occasions.