Athol Fugard is a dramatist of enormous power, particularly adept at full length plays with a small cast. A one time student of philosophy, Fugard’s works are marked by an experientially driven search for truth and an attendant celebration of humanity, no matter how circumscribed the individual’s material conditions. While Fugard has written works set in other locales than South Africa, his evocation of the Karroo region of the Eastern Cape is inimitably his landscape. In a language that reaches the poetic, Fugard has charted the lives of the region’s dispossessed. His work has a universal application to audiences that arises from its precise grounding in the South Africa of the latter part of the twentieth century. H

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First published 08 October 2003

Citation: McLuckie, Craig. "Athol Fugard". The Literary Encyclopedia. 8 October 2003.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1651, accessed 9 February 2010.]