ABSTRACT
Stiebel calls on the literary academy to begin “treating trash seriously” in her eponymous article (1992). Here she advocates the study of popular fi ction in South Africa, which has been largely ignored in academic discourse. Since then, fi fteen years later, it would appear that the exhortation has been taken up, albeit to a fairly limited extent: there is still precious little serious literary research on “trash.” In the 2004 special edition of Social Dynamics, dedicated to publication of recent research output on popular cultural artifacts in Africa, Hofmeyr introduces us to the results of her research efforts, which include some work on detective novels. This work constitutes the fi rst major effort of its kind in South Africa on popular works.
