DOCSLIB.ORG

Afrikaans Poetry and the South African Intertext

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Afrikaans Poetry and the South African Intertext JORAN V AN WYK Afrikaans Poetry and the South African Intertext In July 1989 the ANC met a delegation of South African writers at the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. The South African writers were mostly Afrikaans-speaking. In the joint communique produced at the end of this meeting the participants committed themselves to the establishment of a truly representative South African literature, a literature which will be the embodiment of a shared South African cultural identity; a literature which will reflect the richness of the country's diversity of languages. A plea was also made for the founding of national literature departments at universities. 1 In the light of the political changes since then it has become imperative to give effect to these resolutions. South Africa is now in the hands of a government of national unity. The study of South African literature must reflect this new reality. Investigations into South African literature, such as the digger's poetry which was popular in the late nineteenth century, can play an important role in contributing to our understanding of how the discovery of diamonds and gold led to the introduction of capitalism to South Africa. These discoveries also brought urbanisation and alienation, which became dominant themes in the early twentieth century.2 The study of South African literature can provide insight into various group constructions. What role for instance did the different I Crossing Borders: Writers Meet the ANC, eds. A. Coetzee & J. Polley. (Johannesburg: Taurus, 1990), p. 205. 2 Cf. texts like 0.1. Opperman's "Ballade van die Grysland." Senior Verseboek. (Kapstaad: Tafelberg, 1982), pp. 181-183; and B.W. Vilakazi's "On the Gold Mines." The Penguin Book ofSouthern African Verse, eds. 1. Cope / U. Krige. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968), pp. 300-305. Afrikaans: Recollection, Redefinition, Restitution. Papers held at the 7th Conference on South African Literature, BadBoO, September 25-27, J992, cxk Robert Kriger & EtbeI KrigI:r. [MaIaIu 15-16]. (AmsImIam, Atlanta: Editions RIxqli, 1996). 112 JOHAN VAN WYK Afrikaans language movements play in the construction of an Afrikaner identity? What are the themes and myths underlying this construction? How does it compare with South African literature as a whole? These are some of the questions which will emerge through such a study. Being exposed to South African literature can help students from different language backgrounds to develop an informed knowledge of the whole and allow prejudices to make way for understanding. There is much groundwork still to be done however before the resolutions of the 1989 meeting can be implemented. Some of the problems which need to be addressed include the following: • There is still no comprehensive South African literary history. • Very few anthologies reflect the diversity of South African languages. • Theoretical and methodological models for the study of South African literature are lacking. In this paper I will be looking at the study of Afrikaans poetry within this context, aiming to find the points of contact which will link this poetry with the broader South African poetry intertext. I use the word "intertext" rather than "context" in order to emphasise the interwovenness and mutuality of the different South African discourses. The Afrikaans poetry tradition is a particular syntagmatic moment within the broader South African poetry narrative. Afrikaans poetry brought the Afrikaner nation visibly into discursive existence. At its very inception into consciousness Afrikaans poetry expresses the Afrikaner nation as a moment in time. The fifth stanza of the poem "Di Afrikaanse Volkslied" (" The Song of the Afrikaans People") which introduces Die Patriot (1876) and the first language movement, the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (the Association of Real Afrikaners), makes this temporality manifest: Ieder nasie hel sy TYD om op Ie groei en af Ie sluit, en soos ons liewe Heer dit doel, so is dit altyd wys en goed .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Confession, Embodiment and Ethics in the Poetry of Antjie Krog and Joan Metelerkamp
    Confession, Embodiment and Ethics in the Poetry of Antjie Krog and Joan Metelerkamp by CHRISTINE LOUISE WEYER Dissertation presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Prof. Meg Samuelson March 2013 Stellenbosch Univeristy http://scholar.sun.ac.za DECLARATION By submitting this thesis/dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. Date: March 2013 Copyright © 2013 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved Stellenbosch Univeristy http://scholar.sun.ac.za Abstract This thesis examines the work of two contemporary South African poets, Antjie Krog and Joan Metelerkamp. Through an analytical-discursive engagement with their work, it explores the relationship between confession and embodiment, drawing attention to the ethical potential located at the confluence of these theories and modes. The theory informing this thesis is drawn from three broad fields: that of feminism, embodiment studies and ethical philosophy. More specifically, foundational insights will come from the work of Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Emmanuel Levinas. While much of the theory used originates from Western Europe and North America, this will be mediated by sensitivity towards Krog and Metelerkamp’s South African location, as is fitting for a study focused on embodied confession and the ethical treatment of the other.
    [Show full text]
  • English Literature [Print] ISSN 1594-1930
    [online] ISSN 2420-823X English Literature [print] ISSN 1594-1930 General Editor Flavio Gregori Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia Dorsoduro 3246 30123 Venezia http://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/riviste/english-literature/ English Literature Rivista annuale | Annual Journal Direzione scientifica | General editor Flavio Gregori (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Comitato scientifico | Editorial board Paolo Bertinetti (Università degli Studi di Torino, Italia) Silvia Bigliazzi (Università degli Studi di Verona, Italia) Ma- riaconcetta Costantini (Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio”, Italia) Mariarenata Dolce (Università del Salento, Italia) Lidia De Michelis (Università degli Studi di Milano, Italia) Antonella Riem (Università degli Studi di Udine, Ita- lia) Biancamaria Rizzardi (Università di Pisa, Italia) Maristella Trulli (Università degli Studi di Bari «Aldo Moro», Italia) Comitato di lettura | Advisory board Isabelle Bour (Université Paris 3, Sorbonne Nouvelle, France) Paul Crosthwaite (The University of Edinburgh, UK) Co- ral Ann Howells (University of Reading, UK) Peter Hunt (Cardiff University-Prifysgol Caerdydd, UK) Allan Ingram (University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK) Jason Lawrence (University of Hull, UK) John Mullan (University College London, UK) Jude V. Nixon (Salem State University, USA) John Sutherland (University College London, UK) Laurence Talairach-Vielmas (Université Toulouse 2 Le Mirail, France) Direttore responsabile Lorenzo Tomasin Direzione e redazione | Head office Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia | Dorsoduro 3246 | 30123 Venezia, Italy | [email protected] Editore Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing | Dorsoduro 3859/A, 30123 Venezia, Italia | [email protected] Stampa Logo srl, via Marco Polo 8, 35010 Bogoricco (PD) English Literature is a journal founded by the Associazione Nazionale dei Docenti di Anglistica (ANDA).
    [Show full text]
  • Black Consciousness and the Politics of Writing the Nation in South Africa
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Birmingham Research Archive, E-theses Repository Black Consciousness and the Politics of Writing the Nation in South Africa by Thomas William Penfold A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of African Studies and Anthropology School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham May 2013 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract Since the transition from apartheid, there has been much discussion of the possibilities for the emergence of a truly ‘national’ literature in South Africa. This thesis joins the debate by arguing that Black Consciousness, a movement that began in the late 1960s, provided the intellectual framework both for understanding how a national culture would develop and for recognising it when it emerged. Black Consciousness posited a South Africa where formerly competing cultures sat comfortably together. This thesis explores whether such cultural equality has been achieved. Does contemporary literature harmoniously deploy different cultural idioms simultaneously? By analysing Black writing, mainly poetry, from the 1970s through to the present, the study traces the stages of development preceding the emergence of a possible ‘national’ literature and argues that the dominant art versus politics binary needs to be reconsidered.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 South African Great War Poetry 1914-1918: a Literary
    1 SOUTH AFRICAN GREAT WAR POETRY 1914-1918: A LITERARY- HISTORIOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS by GERHARD GENIS submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject ENGLISH at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: DOCTOR J. PRIDMORE JANUARY 2014 2 I declare that SOUTH AFRICAN GREAT WAR POETRY 1914-1918: A LITERARY-HISTORIOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. ________________________________ ___________________ 3 DEDICATION To my wife Regina, who had to keep the homefire burning while I was in the trenches. To my two daughters, Heidi and Meleri. To my mother Linda, whose love of history and literature has been infectious. To my sister Deidre and brothers Pieter and Frans. To my father Pieter, and brother-in-law Gerhard – R.I.P. To all those who served in the Great War. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am happy to acknowledge the indispensable assistance that I received in completing this thesis. I was undecided on a topic when I visited Prof. Ivan Rabinowitz, formerly of the University of South Africa. He suggested this unexplored and fascinating topic, and the rest is history... I want to thank Dr July Pridmore, my promoter, and Prof. Deirdre Byrne from the Department of English Studies for their constructive feedback and professional assistance. The University of South Africa considerably lessened the financial burden by awarding me a Postgraduate Bursary for 2012 and 2013. Dawie Malan, the English subject librarian, was always available to lend a hand to locate relevant sources.
    [Show full text]
  • A Critical Survey of Contemporary South African Poetry a Critical Survey of Contemporary South African Poetry: the Language of Conflict and Commitment
    A CRITICAL SURVEY OF CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICAN POETRY A CRITICAL SURVEY OF CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICAN POETRY: THE LANGUAGE OF CONFLICT AND COMMITMENT By Laura Holland, B.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University September 1987 MASTER OF Arts (1987) McMASTER UNIVERSITY (English) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: A Critical Survey of Contemporary South African Poetry: The Language of Conflict and Commitment AUTHOR: Laura Linda Holland, B.A. (University of Alberta) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Alan Bishop NUMBER OF PAGES: v, 134 ii ABSTRACT The thes is concentrates on South African poetry from 1960 to the present. It closely examines a selection of poems by Breyten Breytenbach, Dennis Brutus, Pascal Gwala, Wopko Jensma, Oswald Mtshali, Arthur Nortje, Cosmo Pieterse, Sipho Sepamla, and Wally Serote, among others. The body of the thesis discusses these poets' contributions to poetry about prison, exile, and township life. The thesis focuses on the struggle between various polical, racial, and cultural groups for hegemony over South Africa's poetic development. Such issues as language, ideology, and censorship are explored insofar as they in! .luence t:ne content and structure of the poetry. This body of poems, sadly, is little studied in North America. The thesis presents an introduction to and a survey of the major tendencies in South African poetry and, in part, attempts to relate the poetry's role in expressing the commitment of these poets to the ending of apartheid and the eventual resolution of the conflict for freedom. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Steve Biko and Black Consciousness in Post-Apartheid South African Poetry a Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the College
    Steve Biko and Black Consciousness in Post-Apartheid South African Poetry A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy T. Spreelin Macdonald June 2010 © 2010 T. Spreelin MacDonald. All Rights Reserved. 2 This dissertation titled Steve Biko and Black Consciousness in Post-Apartheid South African Poetry by T. SPREELIN MACDONALD has been approved for the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and the College of Fine Arts by Marina L. Peterson Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts Ghirmai Negash Associate Professor of English Charles A. McWeeny Dean, College of Fine Arts 3 ABSTRACT MACDONALD, T. SPREELIN, Ph.D., June 2010, Interdisciplinary Arts Steve Biko and Black Consciousness in Post-Apartheid South African Poetry (158 pp.) Directors of Dissertation: Marina L. Peterson and Ghirmai Negash This dissertation rethinks the legacy of the anti-apartheid leader Steve Biko (1946-1977) in terms of his influence upon post-apartheid South African poetry. Comparing Biko’s own writings on Black Consciousness and the poetry of contemporary South African poets, I show that Biko’s ideas have come to underpin a field of post- apartheid poetry that I call “Biko poems.” Two questions guide this investigation. First, what is it about Biko’s legacy that avails itself so potently to poetic elaboration? That is, what does Biko’s articulation of Black Consciousness offer that allows it to be so vigorously engaged within poetry? I address this question in Chapter One, positing that Biko’s early essays, published under the reoccurring title “I Write What I Like,” and under the pen name “Frank Talk,” model a form of performative writing crucial to his subsequent poetic legacy.
    [Show full text]
  • Afrikaans Poetry (1955-2012)
    Athens Journal of Philology - Volume 3, Issue 2 – Pages 97-116 An Attempt at Periodizing Recent (Southern African) Afrikaans Poetry (1955-2012) By Bernard Odendaal A perspective is offered on Afrikaans poetry between 1955 and 2012. This literary era overlaps with the socio-political era of Apartheid and the struggle against it, as well as the consequent establishment of democracy in South Africa. An approach based on systems theory is combined with views that South African literature may be seen as a "story-scape" of major discourses. Both intra- and extra-systemic factors have influenced trends in Afrikaans poetry. Pressing Southern African socio-political issues have helped to shape the said Afrikaans poetry era into three distinctive periods. The first may be labelled the "literature of the Sixties" (a belated flowering of modernism in Afrikaans). The "Soweto riots" of 1976 then steered South Africa towards socio- political reform. A second poetry period, characterized by tensions between aesthetic and socio-political considerations, therefore covers the years up to the democratic elections of 1994. Since then, discourses like the postcolonial, postmodern and ecological have become centralized. Keywords: Afrikaans poetry, Periodization, Recent era. Introduction: A Bird’s-Eye View of the History of Afrikaans and Afrikaans Poetry before 1955 Afrikaans is a Southern African language, named after the continent on which it developed. It evolved from 17th century Dutch in the contact situation between Dutch and other settlers of European descent, the indigenous Khoikhoi cattle herders and other indigenous African peoples, as well as the Malaysian slaves who were imported to what was formerly known as the Cape of Good Hope.
    [Show full text]
  • A STUDY of INGRID DE KOK's POETRY by Denise Gray a Thesis
    THE CHALLENGE OF THE LYRICAL VOICE IN ‘UNLYRICAL’ TIMES: A STUDY OF INGRID DE KOK’S POETRY by Denise Gray A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in English Studies University of KwaZulu-Natal Durban 2010 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Professor Michael Chapman for his careful supervision and helpful direction. Thanks also to the departmental staff at Howard College, my Oxford community, Andrew Kerr, and Don and Mary Gray. Finally, thanks to God for provision, grace and hope. 2 ABSTRACT This study places the poetry of Ingrid de Kok in a critical context that is strongly influenced by the political climate. Unlike political rhetoric, the nature of the lyrical poem is personal and complex, arguably rendering it defunct in a democracy that seeks to serve majority interests. De Kok’s challenge is to be a lyrical poet in the public sphere, to contain and represent the public interest within the personal form. I will examine how she rises to the historical occasion and extends her medium to incorporate the public event. At the same time, if she is to retain her voice as a lyrical poet, she must guard the privacy of its expression and the intimate spaces it seeks to delineate. In this way she asserts the validity of every-day concerns and of spaces traditionally designated as female. By interrogating the categories of personal and public I hope to project a complex vision of the possibilities of the lyric within contemporary South Africa. 3 CONTENTS Introduction ……………………………………………………………........ 5 Chapter One: Politics and the Lyric ………………………………………… 13 Chapter Two: Gender and the Lyric ………………………………………..
    [Show full text]
  • An Interview with Rustum Kozain
    Wasafiri ISSN: 0269-0055 (Print) 1747-1508 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rwas20 An Interview with Rustum Kozain Hedley Twidle To cite this article: Hedley Twidle (2016) An Interview with Rustum Kozain, Wasafiri, 31:2, 76-80 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1145461 Published online: 24 May 2016. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rwas20 Download by: [41.13.200.156] Date: 24 May 2016, At: 11:41 An Interview with Rustum Kozain Rustum Kozain was born in 1966 in discussing South African poetry.’ I can’t think of a similarly Hedley Paarl, South Africa. He studied for invested debate around the craft of poetry going on now. Or several years at the University of Cape am I not seeing it? Twidle Town (UCT) and spent ten months (1994–1995) in the United States of Rustum Kozain That’s an interesting question, especially as America on a Fulbright Scholarship. He returned to South so many people now seem to consider poetry as this casual Africa and lectured in the Department of English at UCT from activity, which is dispiriting. There isn’t a discussion of, to 1998 to 2004, teaching in the fields of literature, film and use the basic terms, whether a poem is a good poem or popular culture. Kozain has published his poetry in local whether it is a terrible poem. My sense is that we talk about and international journals; his debut volume, This Carting poetry, and literature more generally, simply in terms of its Life, was published in 2005 by Kwela/Snailpress.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of Roy Campbell As a South African Modernist Poet
    A Study of Roy Campbell as a South African modernist poet Alannah Birch Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of D.Litt University of the Western Cape May 2013 Supervisor: Prof. A.N. Parr Abstract Roy Campbell was once a key figure in the South African literary canon. In recent years, his poetry has faded from view and only intermittent studies of his work have appeared. However, as the canon of South African literature is redefined, I argue it is fruitful to consider Campbell and his work in a different light. This thesis aims to re-read both the legend of the literary personality of Roy Campbell, and his prose and poetry written during the period of “high” modernism in England (the 1920s and 1930s), more closely in relation to modernist concerns about language, meaning, selfhood and community. It argues that his notorious, purportedly colonial, “hypermasculine” personae, and his poetic and personal explorations of “selfhood”, offer him a point of reference in a rapidly changing literary and social environment. Campbell lived between South Africa and England, and later Provence and Spain, and this displacement resonated with the modernist theme of “exile” as a necessary condition for the artist. I will suggest that, like the Oxford dandies whom he befriended, Campbell’s masculinist self-styling was a reaction against a particular set of patriarchal traditions, both English and colonial South African, to which he was the putative heir. His poetry reflects his interest in the theme of the “outsider” as belonging to a certain masculinist literary “tradition”. But he also transforms this theme in accordance with a “modernist” sensibility.
    [Show full text]
  • Critical Approaches to Soweto Poetry
    CRITICAL APPROACHES TO SOWETO POETRY: DILEMMAS IN AN ~MERGENT LITERATURE MICHAEL ANTHONY KARASSELLOS The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. CRITICAL APPROACHES TO SOWETO POETRY: DILEMMAS IN AN EMERGENT LITERATURE by Michael Anthony Karassellos Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Literary Studies) Department of English University of Cape Town April 1989 \ \ ' I Supervisor Mr.s.watson '"'.: I ' ' . :. '~ -.·. ABSTRAC1! A review of contemporary South African and European critical approaches 'to "Soweto poetry" is undertaken to evaluate their efficacy in addressing the diverse and complex dynamics evident in tbe poetry.A wide selection of poetry from the l970's and early 1980's is used to argue that none of the critical models provide an adequate methodology free from both pseudo-cultural or ideological assumptions, and "reader-grid"(imposition of external categories upon the poems).From this point of entry, three groups of critics with similar approaches are assessed in relation to Soweto poetry. The second chapter illustrates the deficiency in critical method­ ology of the first group of critics,who rely on a politicizing approach.Their critique presupposes a coherent shift in the nature of Black Consciousness poetry in the 1970's, which is shown to be vague and problematic,especially when they attempt to categorize Soweto poetry into "consistently thematic" divisions.
    [Show full text]
  • "The Heart in Exile": South African Poetry in English, 1990-95
    "The Heart in Exile": South African Poetry in English, 1990-95 LEON DE KOCK WITH IAN TROMP A X XLTHOUGH THE YEARS of democratic transition in South Africa, 1990-95, have seen rapid changes in political and intel• lectual life, these years have also been witness to the after-effects of a demented national life under apartheid. VVhile politicians scurried about at the World Trade Centre, bartering rights for privileges, ordinary people and the country's institutions strug• gled to develop new modes of feeling and action. The country's poets also vigorously sought a bigger, less embattled space in which to work the perceived new realities into changing forms of expression. While it may be true to say that inspiring transforma• tions have indeed occurred, it is also trae that no one in South Africa escaped apartheid and its deep scarring of cultural life— neither liberals nor radicals, nor people of any other inclination. For many decades, supposedly liberal departments of English silently colluded with the "regime" by firmly repressing a full, open representation of the nation's literary life on their sylla• buses, preferring instead to maintain narrowly Anglocentric and politically "neutral" curricula, while so-called liberal newspapers ran "Africa" editions for black readers, full of crudely sensa• tionalized stories depicting what they imagined was the "town• ship life" they never bothered to discover for themselves. Even the progressive, left-wing intelligentsia who promoted the cul• tural boycott of the 1980s, and those of us who imagined we were working from within to undermine the system, somehow co• operated in the construction of a suffocating intellectual life defined by the most cramping of dualisms.
    [Show full text]