Sinaps-opsporing tussen self en ander in Antjie Krog se Mede-wete (2014)

The poetry volume Mede-wete by Antjie Krog is a sustained questioning of ethical relations between self and other, an on-goingpreoccupation of Krog in both her poetry and literary non-fiction works. This review article of Mede-wete (also available as Synapse in translation from Afrikaans into English by Karen Press) traces four forms of interconnectedness or synapses that shed light on Krog’s project to establish ethical connections between the self, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, both the human and non-human other. Love and family bonds, reaching out to the cultural other, a sense of shared materiality with the environment, and, consequently, a longing for mystical unity constitute four of the synapses as announced in the title of the volume of poetry. The strength of the often challenging poetry emanates strongly from the daring use of language that includes syllable disturbances and surprising compounds. In many respects, Krog’s impressive volume belies her apparent pessimism that Afrikaans poets and writers today are little more than “thighshifters-in-flinching-language” (Synapse 113).&nbsp

The utopian challenge to global capitalism by Walter van den Broeck in Terug naar Walden

Die sosialistiese simpatieë wat die skryfwerk van die Vlaamse outeur Walter van den Broeck onderlê, skakel hom met die goed ontwikkelde tradisie van sosiaal betrokke literatuur in Vlaandere. Sy roman Terug naar Walden, gepubliseer in 2009, is ’n herbesoek aan die Waldenprojek van die Nederlandse hervormer en skrywer Frederik van Eeden (1860−1932). Van den Broeck gee te kenne dat ’n heroorweging van die sosialistiese ideale wat Van Eeden besiel het om nedersettings in Nederland en die VSA op die been te bring, geregverdig is in die lig van die ekonomiese krisis wat in 2008 deur onbesonne kapitalistiese praktyke veroorsaak is. In Terug naar Walden ontketen Ruler Marsh, die rykste man in die wêreld, ’n globale finansiële krisis in weerwraak teen die kapitalistiese stelsel wat tot die ondergang van sy ouers gelei het. Marsh keer terug na die Kempen in Vlaandere, sy familie se land van herkoms. In ’n Heideggeriaanse bevestiging van die lokale, soos versinnebeeld deur die veldpad, skakel Van den Broeck sy visie van die gemene (die gedeelde oftewel the common), ’n konsep wat teoretici soos Michael Hardt en Antonio Negri in hul Empire-trilogie vanuit die kommunistiese denke gerehabiliteer het, met ’n utopiese siening dat ’n stewiger band met die land en die mense uit die eie kontrei ’n nuttige vertrekpunt mag wees vir die ontwikkeling van lewensvatbare alternatiewe vir die kapitalisme.The socialist sympathies that inform the writing of Flemish author Walter van den Broeck align him with a well-established tradition of socially engaged writing in Flanders. In his novel Terug naar Walden (Back to Walden), published in 2009, he revisits the Walden project of the Dutch reformer and writer Frederik van Eeden (1860−1932). Van den Broeck suggests that a reconsideration of the socialist ideals that inspired Van Eeden to establish settlements in the Netherlands and the United States is warranted in the light of the economic crisis triggered by unchecked capitalist practices in 2008. In Terug naar Walden Ruler Marsh, the richest man in the world, unleashes a global financial crisis as a form of retaliation against the capitalist system that ruined his parents. Marsh returns to the Kempen in Flanders where his family originated. In a Heideggerean affirmation of the local as exemplified by the country road, Van den Broeck articulates his vision of the common, that theorists Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri in their Empire trilogy have attempted to salvage from communist thinking, with a utopian notion that a stronger connection with the land and the people within one’s immediate environment may provide a useful premise for the development of viable alternatives to capitalism.Ek wil graag my dank teenoor die Universiteit van Pretoria uitspreek vir die finansiële steun om hierdie artikel moontlik te maakhttp://www.literator.org.zahttp://www.puk.ac.za/literator/am2013gv201

Fathers, sons and the political in contemporary Afrikaans fiction

This article examines the role of the father in the transferral of ideological beliefs to the son within the Afrikaans-speaking family as represented in the fiction of contemporary male authors, specifically Alexander Strachan, Mark Behr and S.P. Benjamin. The research is guided by the central question of ideological factors regulating the relation between gender and politics. Kaja Silverman's interpretation of Jacques Lacan's work and her psychoanalytical distinction between the penis and the phallus in Male Subjectivity at the Margins (1992) form the theoretical basis of this study. Finally, some remarks are made on the role of the father in the public debate about the cultural identity of Afrikaans-speaking South Africans after apartheid.Article digitised using: Suprascan 1000 RGB scanner, scanned at 400 dpi; 24-bit colour; 100% Image derivating - Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS3 - Image levels, crop, deskew Abbyy Fine Reader No.9 - Image manipulation + OCR Adobe Acrobat 9 (PDF)This article was written by Prof. Andries Visagie before he joined the University of Pretoriahttp://explore.up.ac.za/record=b1076953nf201

"Ik de kameleon". Hibriditeit in Henk van Woerden se trilogie oor Suid-Afrika

Since the publication of Een mond vol glas (1998), Henk van Woerden's study on the life of Demitrios Tsafendas in Afrikaans and English translation, his work has attracted considerable interest in South Africa. This article is a critical investigation of three aspects of hybridity in Van Woerden's South African trilogy. Van Woerden freely combines different genres (the bildungsroman, the travelogue, the autobiography, reportage and the biography) to create hybridised textual forms. In Tikoes (1996) he uses the chameleon as a metaphor for cultural translation, a survival strategy embraced by postcolonial migrants. In Moenie kyk nie (1993) and in Een mond vol glas, Van Woerden gives careful consideration to the relation between hybridity and psychological instability. In this article it is argued that Van Woerden's scrupulous views on hybridity and his critique of the "professional literary exile" provide an important corrective to the mainly positive and emancipatory view of hybridity in postcolonial theory.Article digitised using: Suprascan 1000 RGB scanner, scanned at 400 dpi; 24-bit colour; 100% Image derivating - Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS3 - Image levels, crop, deskew Abbyy Fine Reader No.9 - Image manipulation + OCR Adobe Acrobat 9 (PDF)This article was written by Prof. Andries Visagie before he joined the University of Pretoriahttp://explore.up.ac.za/record=b114619

Huldeblyk Hennie Aucamp (1934–2014)

In die laaste jare van sy lewe het Hennie Aucamp met ’n soort gedrewenheid die een publikasie ná die ander die lig laat sien asof hy duidelik daarvan bewus was dat sy dae min geword het vir die afhandeling van sy laaste paar skryfprojekte. Die digbundel Skulp, voorlopig laaste boek uit sy pen, word juis elders in hierdie uitgawe van Tydskrif vir letterkunde geresenseer, maar dit is goed moontlik dat daar in sy nalatenskap nog talle manuskripte is wat met- tertyd die lig kan sien. Hoewel Aucamp enkele van sy dagboeke waaronder Gekaapte tyd (1996) vir publikasie beskikbaar gestel het, is dit bekend dat hy sedert sy jeug getrou dagboek gehou het. Aucamp het sy dokumente noukeurig laat bewaar in die J. S. Gerickebiblioteek van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch en daar is ongetwyfeld nog baie stof wat wag op die ondernemende redakteur en navorser

Postmodemisme, subjektiwiteit en geskiedenis : Louis Ferron se Turkenvespers as 'n historiese collage

The postmodernist element (among other things) in Louis Ferron's novel, Turkenvespers (1977) becomes apparent in Ferron's playful irreverence for historical fact and chronology. History functions as a problematizing aspect in the efforts of the character Kaspar Hauser to attain coherent subjectivity. Kaspar unsuccessfully reverts to borrowed identities from both the historical and the literary past to constitute himself as an autonomous subject. This article examines the concomitance of history and subjectivity as represented in Turkenvespers. Furthermore, the various visions of history accommodated by Ferron's novel are explored and subsequently collated with postmodernist conceptions of history.Article digitised using: Suprascan 1000 RGB scanner, scanned at 400 dpi; 24-bit colour; 100% Image derivating - Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS3 - Image levels, crop, deskew Abbyy Fine Reader No.9 - Image manipulation + OCR Adobe Acrobat 9 (PDF)This article was written by Prof. Andries Visagie before he joined the University of Pretoriahttp://explore.up.ac.za/record=b114619

White masculinity and the African Other : Die werfbobbejaan by Alexander Strachan

The vast discourse on the Self and the Other is no doubt one of the central fields of enquiry in intercultural studies. Despite its more utilitarian focus on face-to-face interactions between people of diverse cultures (Jandt 2001 :38), the field of intercultural communication has also incorporated insights from the more philosophical discourse on the Self and the Other. And, of course, research on intercultural interaction goes beyond race and ethnicity. Increasingly, researchers are becoming aware of the need to investigate the role of gender in intercultural studies.Article digitised using: Suprascan 1000 RGB scanner, scanned at 400 dpi; 24-bit colour; 100% Image derivating - Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS3 - Image levels, crop, deskew Abbyy Fine Reader No.9 - Image manipulation + OCR Adobe Acrobat 9 (PDF)This article was written by Prof. Andries Visagie before he joined the University of Pretoriahttp://explore.up.ac.za/record=b1137432nf201