ABSTRACT
South Africa is the one country where social and political contradictions have been so stark that the influence of politics on other social activities, and vice versa, has been most easily observable. Many pious denials by racist apologists of the system that such an influence actually existed have actually turned out to affirm the truth of close relationships between politics and society. How often have we been told that sport and politics don't mix, when as a result of deliberate policy, the distribution of sports opportunities in the country ensures that sport and politics do mix. The same has been the case in the relationship between the history of the debate about literary standards, on the one hand, and the social distribution of opportunities for artistic development, on the other hand. Literary standards in South Africa cannot be discussed outside the context of opportunities for many aspirant writers, who are black, to obtain a basic education.
