South African literature of the first literary works of note is Olive Schreiner's 1883 "The Story of an African Farm", which can be linked to Van den Heever's "Laat Vrugte" as a "plaasroman". The novel was a revelation in Victorian literature: it is heralded by many as introducing feminism into the novel form. However, Mossman (1990: 41) argues that "The most frequently taught work of South African literature in American classrooms is "Cry, the Beloved Country" (1948) by Alan Paton". A possible reason for this is that it was made into a film starring James Earl Jones, and it depicts a typical racist
Cry, the Beloved Country frequent use of literary and linguistic devices such as microcosms, intercalary chapters and dashes instead of quotation marks for dialogue to indicate the start of speech acts to portray the devastating conditions in South Africa. The novel is filled with Biblical references and allusions. The most evident are the names Paton gives to the characters. Absalom, the son of Stephen Kumalo, is named for the son of King David, who rose against his father in rebellion. Also, in the New Testament Book of Acts, Saint Stephen was a martyr who died rather than give up his beliefs. The Gospel of