Snapshot

Martin Klammer, Professor of English and Africana Studies, has a book on Whitman, Slavery, and the Emergence of Leaves of Grass (Penn St U Press).  He’s continued his love of American literature, with its rich strain of African-American writing, in his teaching in both the English Department and the Africana Studies Department, of which he is chair.  His more recent work focuses on South Africa.  Martin has spent many January terms taking students to study its literature and culture, and his sabbatical year living there led to the publication of his recent book on the life of (and co-written with) Blanche LaGuma, an underground activist and wife of the celebrated novelist Alex LaGuma:  In the Dark With My Dress on Fire: My Life in Cape Town, London, Havana and Home Again (Cape Town: Jacana, 2010).

Teaching and Research Interests

South African literature and history, African-American literature, American novel, Walt Whitman

Some courses I’ve taught recently

• American Novel
• Native Sons and Daughters: The African-American Novel in the Civil Rights Era
• Southern African Women Writers
• South Africa: Women’s Lives, Women’s Stories (in South Africa)

Scholarly interests

I hope my recent book, In the Dark With My Dress on Fire: My Life in Cape Town, London, Havana and Home Again, will make an important contribution to recent South African history. I helped Blanche La Guma write her life story, the tale of an amazing 79-year-old woman who grew up in a working class “coloured” (mixed race) family in Cape Town, South Africa, and became an underground Communist Party activist fighting the racist system of apartheid. She married Alex La Guma, a famous novelist, and raised two sons while working full-time as a midwife and continuing her clandestine activity as a member of a small underground cell. Because of their political activities the family was forced into exile, first in London and then Havana, Cuba, where Alex served as the African Nationalist Party (ANC) representative for Cuba and the Caribbean before his death in 1985. Blanche, a terrific storyteller with many stories to tell, is a person of great warmth, integrity, and humor.

Writing sample

The following is an excerpt from a personal essay I wrote on my experience trying to help a woman whom I saw domestically assaulted near Cape Town last year, while my family and I were on sabbatical. The essay appeared in a recent issue of Agora, the Luther College journal.

By now it was 9:30, maybe 10, seven hours after Louise’s beating. I drove to Kalk Bay and parked near our church, Holy Trinity, and the three of us walked the six or eight blocks to where Bridget sleeps, at the site of the assault. It was a glorious night, really, with a light breeze cooling the day’s heat, stars out and lights shimmering from Simon’s Town across the bay. Bridget said, “Nice night for a walk.” She pointed out where a butchery stood before it became an antique store and a post office and Fruit & Veg now turned into an art shop and restaurant.

When we got there, Bridget said to Donovan, “Thanks for making my bed.” I thought it was a joke, but there behind the low brick wall -- the same wall Martin used to batter Louise’s head -- lay Bridget’s “bedroom”: a slim mattress covered with a blanket and two pillows, all wedged neatly between three cardboard walls. The woman who looked out earlier from her yard had left a pot of tea that now stood cold. The parking lot lights flickered off, but no one seemed to notice we were completely in the dark.