2024-03-29T12:45:47Z
https://letterkunde.africa/oai
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/413
2021-11-29T16:01:38Z
tvl:ART
Intellectualisation of isiXhosa literature: the case of Jeff Opland
Kaschula, Russell Harold
history of isiXhosa literature
intellectualisation
isiXhosa literary archive
isiXhosa literature
Jeff Opland
oral literature
The origins of the intellectualisation of written isiXhosa literature are often attributed to the missionaries John Ross and John Bennie. They set up a printing press in the Tyhume Valley which later became known as Lovedale Press. They introduced written isiXhosa in 1823 and for this they are acknowledged as the first to write and publish in isiXhosa. This article attempts to trace this intellectualisation process of isiXhosa literature, concentrating on a critique and assessment of the life-long work of Professor Jeff Opland, who has contributed enormously to the present understanding of both oral and written isiXhosa literature. It is argued in this article that his corpus of books and academic articles require some contextualisation within the broader debate of the continued intellectualisation of isiXhosa language and literature. Reference is also made to the Opland isiXhosa literature archive and its contribution to the further intellectualisation of isiXhosa literature. It is suggested in this article that Opland is one of the greatest contributors to academic debates concerning isiXhosa literature and history. Izibongo or oral poems written by, and about Jeff Opland are analysed to further enhance the context of his contribution.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2017-09-04
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/413
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.54i2.413
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No. 2 (2017); 5-25
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No 2 (2017); 5-25
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/413/2890
Copyright (c) 2017 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/435
2021-11-29T16:01:38Z
tvl:ART
Breyten Breytenbachs poëzie in Raster
Bourgeus, Camille
T'Sjoen, Yves
aesthetics and politics
Afrikaans poetry
Breyten Breytenbach
Dutch poetry
experimental literature
literary engagement
Raster
From 1969 until 1972 the South-African writer and graphic artist Breyten Breytenbach published 29 poems, prose texts and three drawings in the Dutch experimental periodical Raster (first edition: 1967). H. C. ten Berge, writer, poet and Raster's main editor, attributed Breytenbach an unusually prominent position in his magazine. In the Dutch language area of the late sixties and early seventies, Breytenbach was mostly known for his political engagement within the anti-apartheid movement. Ten Berge, however, also praised his work for its formal and experimental aesthetic qualities. According to Ten Berge experiment and engagement are related to one another in a very unique way. By examining the position of Breytenbach in Raster, the paper presents a documentation of the exceptional literary relationship between Breytenbach and Ten Berge, as well as their shared interest in certain motifs in poetry, the use of a specific metaphoric language (e.g. perception of nature and body) and a common belief in the power of poetic language.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2017-09-04
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/435
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.54i2.435
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No. 2 (2017); 26-41
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No 2 (2017); 26-41
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/435/2896
Copyright (c) 2017 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/669
2021-11-27T08:49:15Z
tvl:ART
An analysis of the bodily spatial power relations in Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk
Fourie, Reinhardt
Adendorff, Melissa
Agaat
Marlene van Niekerk
Thirding-as-Othering
spatial inhabitation
power
body in space
The aim of this article is to explore the power relations portrayed through the bodily spatial interaction of the characters of Milla and Agaat in Marlene van Niekerk’s 2004 novel, Agaat. This interaction is analysed according to the theory of Thirding-asOthering posited by Henri Lefebvre and Edward Soja in terms of the body in space. The body in space is interpreted through agency which is exemplified in the intimacy of the relations of these two bodies through the actions of bathing, giving birth, and the physical aspects of the process of “civilising” the child character of Agaat. Through an analysis of three sets of incidents and scenes which illustrate the physical inhabitation of space through agency, the power relations between Milla and Agaat are exemplified and discussed. The analysis culminates in the conclusion that the relationship between Milla and Agaat is a cyclical power play that does not come to any pure form of dominance or submission because of the inhabitation that they enact through each other. With agency being tantamount to inhabitation and assertion of power, Agaat has the ultimate power on the farm through Milla, as Milla’s body is othered by her illness and finally her death.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
application/epub+zip
application/xml
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/669
10.4314/tvl.v52i2.1
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 2 (2015); 5-20
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 2 (2015); 5-20
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/669/527
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/669/1311
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/669/1313
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/670
2021-11-27T08:50:10Z
tvl:ART
Bodily disintegration and successful ageing in Body Bereft by Antjie Krog
Pretorius, Antoinette
Antjie Krog
Body Bereft
gerontology
successful ageing
bodily deterioration
Antjie Krog’s Body Bereft (2006) details both the bodily changes brought about by older age and the ways in which these changes fracture a person’s previously-stable sense of self. This article reads Krog’s depiction of the ageing body in a small selection of poems from this collection in relation to the unavoidable reality of bodily decay and what is referred to in gerontological theory as ‘successful ageing’. This tension dominates large parts of the gerontological field, and can be seen in Krog’s ambivalent representation of older age in Body Bereft. Through close readings of a number of poems, I will investigate the ways in which Krog problematises the relationship between the lived experience of older age with its concomitant sense of deterioration, and the societal impetus to age well and accept ageing with magnanimity. I will demonstrate that this collection foregrounds the poet’s refusal to accept pre-existing discourses that delimit ageing as something either to bemoan or celebrate. I will conclude that this refusal finds particular expression in her poems “dommelfei / crone in the woods” and “how do you say this”
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/670
10.4314/tvl.v52i2.2
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 2 (2015); 21-32
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 2 (2015); 21-32
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/670/528
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/671
2021-11-27T08:53:15Z
tvl:ART
Wai Nengre: ’n Verdere ondersoek na tendense in die letterkundes van drie voormalige Nederlandse kolonies
van Wyk, Steward
Black Consciousness
creole
creolization
hybridity
Negritude
This article expands on research that explores similar tendencies in the literatures of three former Dutch colonies: the literature from the Dutch Antilles and Surinam and black Afrikaans writing emanating from South Africa. It commences with an overview of slavery in the Dutch colonial empire and its legacy which resulted in the establishment of a population that shares elements of Dutch language and culture. It proceeds with an analysis of similar tendencies in the development of those literatures, in particular the influence of Negritude and Black Consciousness and the representation of creole and hybrid identities. It concludes with an analysis of creolization as a further development in these literatures and possibilities for future research.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/671
10.4314/tvl.v52i2.3
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 2 (2015); 33-47
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 2 (2015); 33-47
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/671/529
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/672
2021-11-27T08:54:05Z
tvl:ART
Twee Fischers, twee dramas: Die geheime Bloemfontein-konferensie (1938) en Die Bram Fischer-wals (2011)
Keuris, Marisa
Afrikaner history
Afrikaans plays
Abraham Fischer (Orange River Colony Premier)
Bram Fischer (defence lawyer)
documentary drama
biographical drama
There is no better example within Afrikaner history where different generations of the same family played such extraordinary roles in the course of important historical events for the Afrikaner as well as for South Africa than those of the Fischer family. The name Bram Fischer is well known within more recent history, due to his role as the leader of the legal defence team during the Rivonia trial where prominent political figures, including Nelson Mandela, were tried on several charges including high treason. He is also remembered for his own sensational trial in 1966 where he was branded a traitor by the Afrikaner establishment. Bram’s grandfather, Abraham Fischer, played an important role in the history of the Free State, by being the first premier of the then Orange River colony. He was also known for his role as mediator and translator at the so-called “secret Bloemfontein conference” of 31 May–6 June 1899, where President Kruger unsuccessfully tried to reach a compromise with Sir Alfred Milner—an agreement which could have prevented the Anglo Boer War that followed shortly afterwards. I provide a comparative discussion of the two plays written in Afrikaans about the two Fischers, namely the one about the grandfather, Abraham Fischer (Die geheime Bloemfontein-konferensie [The secret Bloemfontein conference] by Dr. W. J. B. Pienaar in 1938), and Harry Kalmer’s The Bram Fischer waltz (2011) about the grandson. The secret Bloemfontein conference will be discussed as an example of a documentary drama, while The Bram Fischer waltz will be analysed as an example of a biographical drama.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/672
10.4314/tvl.v52i2.4
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 2 (2015); 48-60
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 2 (2015); 48-60
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/672/530
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/673
2021-11-27T08:56:42Z
tvl:ART
Die historisiteit van resente Afrikaanse historiese fiksie oor die Anglo-Boereoorlog
Pretorius, Fransjohan
Afrikaans historical fiction
Anglo-Boer War
historical authenticity
Authors of creative writing in the Afrikaans language find a rich source of dramatic material in the Anglo-Boer War of 1 899 to 1902. Themes from this war that lend themselves superbly to be woven into historical novels and short stories, are the concentration camps (where 28 000 Boer civilians died); the bitterness that plagued Afrikaners in the aftermath of the war; the pride in Boer heroism on the battlefield; important historical figures; treason that lurked in Boer ranks; the relations, usually fraught, with the British, with black people, with fellow-burghers and those with Boer women, often at an individual level. Then there were the experiences of prisoners of war; and the Boers' heartfelt religiosity-on the one hand the deepening of the spiritual experience and on the other the incidence of apostasy; the disillusionment of defeat; and the challenge of reconstruction after the war. In this paper recent historical fiction that has appeared since 1998 from distinguished Afrikaans writers on the Anglo-Boer War is assessed to establish its historical authenticity. The author determines whether what is portrayed is historically correct; what was possible but verges on the improbable, and what is factually incorrect. The works of Christoffel Coetzee, Ingrid Winterbach, Sonja Loots, P.G. du Plessis, Karel Schoeman, Zirk van den Berg, Margaret Bakkes, Jeanette Ferreira, Engela van Rooyen and Eleanor Baker are assessed. Finally, an attempt is made to indicate the fruits of co-operation between the writer of historical fiction, the publisher and the historian.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/673
10.4314/tvl.v52i2.5
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 2 (2015); 61-77
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 2 (2015); 61-77
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/673/531
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/675
2021-11-27T08:57:23Z
tvl:ART
Historiese korrektheid en historiese fiksie: 'n Respons
Burger, Willie
aesthetic illusion
historical fiction
history fiction
verisimilitude
In this article the relationship between history and fiction is examined in response to the historian, Fransjohan Pretorius' criticism of recent Afrikaans fiction about the Anglo-Boer War in Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 52.2 (2015). The intricate relationship between history and fiction is examined by pointing, on the one hand to the problematic of the relationship between history and the past and on the one hand, to the difference between fiction and history. The function of aesthetic illusion, verisimilitude and conceptions of reference is investigated theoretically before turning to the specific novels that Pretorius discusses. The article shows that historical fiction cannot be restricted to novelized versions of accepted history, but that historical fiction also reminds the reader that the past is always culturally mediated and that the primary aim of novels is not to represent the past but to examine aspects of human existence. A comparison between fiction and history can therefore not be used as a norm to assess novels.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/675
10.4314/tvl.v52i2.6
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 2 (2015); 78-98
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 2 (2015); 78-98
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/675/532
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/680
2021-11-27T08:59:17Z
tvl:ART
’n Alternatiewe beskouing van die natuur se andersheid in E. Kotze se kortverhaal ‘Halfkrone vir die Nagmaal’
Meyer, Susan
alternative model of otherness
anotherness
E. Kotze
“Halfkrone vir die Nagmaal”
human-nature relationship
Mikhail Bakhtin
nature as another
Patrick Murphy
Diepsee: ’n Keur uit die verhale van E. Kotze (2014) refocuses our attention on Kotze’s short story collections which immortalised the sea and the littoral spaces of the West Coast in Afrikaans literature. This study comprises an ecocriticial investigation of the title story in Halfkrone vir die Nagmaal (1982), with attention to the manner in which distancing takes place from the conventional Western way of thinking by which is presumed that human-nature differences may serve to vindicate human domination of, or misconstrue the relationship with, the natural world. Differences between human and nonhuman nature in this narrative is integrated with details which clearly bring the human-nature relationship to light, as well as ideas of connectedness with nature. This leads me to an exploration of the representation of the sea and the natural sea environment as a literary demonstration of an alternative view of nature as the Other. The investigation centres on the discovery of characteristics of anotherness—characteristics in contrast to those of the Other in the dualistic human-nature view in which the key concepts of alienation and objectification still function to defend Western hierarchical power relationships. The alternative model of otherness, with anotherness as key concept, has its origins in Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory concerning the term “relational otherness”. This model has been applied to the field of ecocriticism by Patrick Murphy who describes anotherness as a perception of otherness that respects difference without using it to justify domination or prohibit connection. Murphy emphasises that anotherness proceeds from a heterarchichal—that is, a non-hierarchical—sense of difference. The application of this alternative model of otherness, in the ecocritical context, to “Halfkrone vir die Nagmaal” leads to the discovery of a respectful approach to human-nature differences, where principles of domination or distancing do not apply, but rather those of relations and human-nature interaction. In voicing another nature, Kotze’s acts as “I-for-another” (Bakhtin’s expression) for the earth; her narrative becomes an act of responsibility towards a coastal strip that nowhere else in Afrikaans literature is captured so expansively and poignantly as in her work.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/680
10.4314/tvl.v52i2.8
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 2 (2015); 102-116
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 2 (2015); 102-116
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/680/537
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/681
2021-11-27T09:00:19Z
tvl:ART
Negotiating growth in turbulentscapes: Violence, secrecy and growth in Goretti Kyomuhendo's Secrets No More
Okuyade, Ogaga
African child-figure
Bildungsroman
dementia
Goretti Kyomuhendo
identity
The traditional Western variant of the Bildungsroman explores the dialectic of growth and change in the developmental process of the protagonist and how he is socialized into the society. However, most of the criticism on the form hardly explores the growth process of a child who suffers partial dementia as a result of human evil and sadism. This essay therefore, examines how a partially demented child-protagonist negotiates her identity in the absence of her parents and the comfort zone of a nuclear family in Goretti Kyomuhendo's Secrets No More. The protagonist negotiates the growth process around the turbulent national space, a trans-ethnic community of orphans and provincial subjects and the heavily patriarchal familial base where she struggles for self-assertion through a kind of voicing which is not associated with speech. In order to understand the developmental or growth process of the child-protagonist, I organize my argument around the possible violence of varied kinds performed on the body of the girl-child and the family and how she constructs identity from the limited choices she is offered in a turbulent African space where parental agency and guidance are unavailable for the child to emulate models in order to construct her own identity. Applying some of the theoretical positions of some Bildungsroman scholars, I will demonstrate through close reading, how Secrets No More aptly articulates some of the fundamental features of the narrative of growth.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/681
10.4314/tvl.v52i2.9
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 2 (2015); 117-137
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 2 (2015); 117-137
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/681/538
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/712
2021-11-27T09:01:03Z
tvl:ART
The place of Urhobo folklore in Tanure Ojaide's poetry
Ojaruega, Enajite Eseoghene
cultural identity
Tanure Ojaide
oral tradition
Urhobo folklore
While some notable studies have been done on Tanure Ojaide and his coevals on their “Alter/Native” tradition of modern African poetry that gained inspiration from indigenous African oral literature and folklore, there has been no focused study on the place of folklore in his writing, especially his poetry. Ojaide’s writing is deeply steeped in Urhobo folklore, which his upbringing and later study and research in Udje have brought about. Though this is not an essentialist reading of his work, I intend to use his specific cultural background to do a reading of his poetry in order to show the depth, breadth, and complexity of his themes and the sophistication of his art, all of which are infused with his native Urhobo folklore. From legendary personages such as Ogiso, Arhuaran, Aminogbe, Ayayughe, Ogidigbo through the fauna and flora of the iroko, akpobrisi, uwara, eyareya, to the incorporation of folk songs and modelling of poems on the udje genre, Ojaide uses orature to establish a cultural identity and a common humanity for his work. Through local folklore and a style borrowed from the oral tradition he deploys folkloric resources as style and form to advance his themes. My study thus illuminates the deep meaning of the writer’s thoughts and the effective use of oral poetic performance style. This conscious effort of the writer appears to have yielded poetic dividends in the relevance of his work and the literary reputation he has gained through his consistency despite innovations now and then.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/712
10.4314/tvl.v52i2.10
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 2 (2015); 138-158
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 2 (2015); 138-158
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/712/565
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/713
2021-11-27T09:03:00Z
tvl:ART
Didacticism and the Third Generation of African Writers: Chukwuma Ibezute's The Temporal Gods and Goddess in the Cathedral
Awuzie, Solomon
African literature
Generations
Chukwuma Ibezute
didacticism
oral storytelling
This article argues that African literature is a didactic literature. It points out that even though African literature has borrowed so much from European literary culture, especially in the areas of form and language; didacticism is not one of those concepts that African literature inherited from the European literary culture. By didacticism, it is implied that African literature is aimed at correcting, informing and educating its readers. These functions of didacticism are inherent in African oral traditional storytelling and are carried over to the written literature. It is further argued in the article that of the three generations that now make up African literature, the third generation of African writers are accused of not making their stories didactic and that only a selected few of them remain true to making their stories didactic. Among these few writers is Chukwuma Ibezute. Using Chukwuma Ibezute's two novels, The Temporal Gods (1998) and Goddess in the Cathedral (2003) the didactic nature of African literature as contained in the works of a writer of the third generation is demonstrated. In The Temporal Gods the reality of the consequences of greed and envy are revealed. It is further argued through the novel that the afflictions of evil spirits on their victims are temporal. In Goddess in the Cathedral we are presented with another educating story of the activities of evil spirits and their agents. Through the novel, we are warned against some pastors who are agents of evil spirits but who claim to be working for the almighty God. Using examples from the two novels, ways on how to know a pastor who is working for God and the one who is working for evil spirits are further revealed.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/713
10.4314/tvl.v52i2.11
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 2 (2015); 159-175
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 2 (2015); 159-175
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/713/566
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/714
2021-11-27T09:08:37Z
tvl:ART
Desert ethics, myths of nature and novel form in the narratives of Ibrahim al-Koni
Moolla, F.F.
allegory
comparative literature
desert ethics
Ibrahim al-Koni
Libyan literature
This broadly comparative essay contrasts environmentalism in the fiction in English translation of the Libyan writer, Ibrahim alKoni, with dominant trends in contemporary environmentalism. An analysis of three of the most ecocritically pertinent of the novels in English translation suggests that the natural world is viewed through the lens of the mythical, encompassing the religious worlds of both Tuareg animism, as well as monotheism represented by Islam and early Christianity. The novels to be considered are The Seven Veils of Seth, Anubis and The Bleeding of the Stone. Unlike environmental approaches which derive from the European Enlightenment of procedural rational disenchantment, human beings in Al-Koni’s work are accorded a place in the sacred order which allows non-parasitic modes of existence within the framework of a sacred law. This conviction is articulated most powerfully through the symbol of the desert which inspires all of Al-Koni’s work. The social and sacred desert ethic out of which Al-Koni’s fiction is forged, strains at the form of the novel, the genre which constitutes and is constituted by an immanent, individual vision of the world. As a consequence, Al-Koni’s narratives tend towards allegorical modes which highlight the radical complexity and simplicity of allegory.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/714
10.4314/tvl.v52i2.12
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 2 (2015); 176-196
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 2 (2015); 176-196
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/714/567
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1093
2021-11-29T16:01:38Z
tvl:ART
Identity and the absent mother in Atta's Everything Good will Come
Owonibi, Sola Emmanuel
Gaji, Olufunmilayo
absence
Ala
Sefi Atta
Everything good will come
identity
Obatala
Everything good will come presents the trope of the absent mother which scholars have identified as a significant feature of third generation Nigerian women prose fiction writings. Besides the trope of the absent mother, religion and identity also feature prominently in Atta's Everything good will come. This article harmonises these three dominant motifs in the narrative towards an examination of the complexity of identity formation in Everything good will come. The article focuses on Mike's sculptures as an artistic depiction of the dynamics that ultimately influence Enitan's identity formation. Due to the plurality of religious ideologies in the postcolonial Nigeria depicted in the narrative, the motifs of Christianity and traditional religion present in the narrative are explored towards illumination of key elements of the text. Christian motifs provide deeper comprehension of the dynamics that influence the relationship of Enitan and Sheri against the backdrop of the trope of the absent mother. Victoria and Enitan's characters and experiences find parallels in the being and characteristics of Ala, the Earth Goddess and Obatala.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2017-09-04
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1093
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.54i2.1093
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No. 2 (2017); 112-121
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No 2 (2017); 112-121
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1093/2895
Copyright (c) 2017 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1169
2021-11-29T12:00:04Z
tvl:ART
Cameroon’s national literatures: An introduction
Nfah-Abbenyi, Juliana Makuchi
Cameroon
Cameroon folktales
Cameroon literature
Cameroon's national literatures
postcolonial condition
Please refer to full text.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1169
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.1
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 5-11
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 5-11
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1169/1024
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1170
2021-11-29T11:58:33Z
tvl:ART
Anglophone Cameroon literature: A conversation with Bole Butake
Nfah-Abbenyi, Juliana Makuchi
Butake, Bole
Anglophone Cameroon literature
Bole Butake
Please refer to full text.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1170
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.2
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 12-29
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 12-29
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1170/1025
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1171
2021-11-29T11:57:26Z
tvl:ART
Francophone Cameroon literature: A conversation with Ambroise Kom
Nfah-Abbenyi, Juliana Makuchi
Kom, Ambroise
Francophone Cameroon literature
Ambroise Kom
Please refer to full text.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1171
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.3
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 30-50
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 30-50
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1171/1027
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1173
2021-11-29T12:03:12Z
tvl:ART
Writing in Cameroon, the first hundred years
Brière, Eloise A
Cameroonian literature
Christianity
European languages
literature of opposition
German, French and British colonization, the advent of Christian missions, the fight for independence and the subsequent neocolonial régime, impacted greatly on the literature produced in Cameroon between 1889 and 1989. These factors determined where writers studied, the gender of those who did study, the European languages they used, the purposes for which they wrote, as well as where they were published and read. Witnesses to the absurdity and abuses of several colonial masters as well as a variety of approaches to Christianity, Cameroonians’ skepticism was evident in the oppositional stance that writers took in their fictional works. Early writers’ attention to the status of women anticipated some of the themes women writers would later use to denounce the impact of tradition, patriarchy and poverty on the lives of women. Later fiction revealed the post-independence restrictions on Cameroon’s progress towards freedom. In the process, Cameroonian writers made the French language theirs, adapting it to reflect the world they wrote about.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1173
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.4
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 51-65
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 51-65
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1173/1028
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1174
2021-11-29T12:07:07Z
tvl:ART
La ‘mutilation anthropologique’ et le réalignement de la littérature camerounaise Cilas Kemedjio
La ‘mutilation anthropologique’ et le réalignement de la littérature camerounaise Cilas Kemedjio
Kemedjio, Cilas
Cameroonian literature
Francophone literature
national literary tradition
I argue in this article that the postcolonial existential wound, otherwise referred to by Eboussi Boulaga as the anthropological mutilation, represents the intertextual nexus that bridges the generational gap in Francophone Cameroonian literature. The tragic malaise, rooted in absurdity and the dire state of the postcolonial condition, echoes anxieties expressed by earlier generations of Cameroonian writers in the 1950s about engaged literature. The article is therefore an exercise in detecting commonalities and discontinuities that weave a shared national literary tradition. Among the commonalities, the presence of jazz, the writing of the anticolonial struggle stand out while innovations are to be found in the epidemic manifestation of madness and the disintegrationof the basic social fabric visible in the form of incest.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1174
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.5
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 66-85
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 66-85
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1174/1029
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1175
2021-11-29T12:28:18Z
tvl:ART
‘Anthropological mutilation’ and the reordering of Cameroonian literature
Kemedjio, Cilas
Cameroonian literature
Francophone literature
national literary tradition
I argue in this article that the postcolonial existential wound, otherwise referred to by Eboussi Boulaga as the anthropological mutilation, represents the intertextual nexus that bridges the generational gap in Francophone Cameroonian literature. The tragic malaise, rooted in absurdity and the dire state of the postcolonial condition, echoes anxieties expressed by earlier generations of Cameroonian writers in the 1950s about engaged literature. The article is therefore an exercise in detecting commonalities and discontinuities that weave a shared national literary tradition. Among the commonalities, the presence of jazz, the writing of the anticolonial struggle stand out while innovations are to be found in the epidemic manifestation of madness and the disintegration of the basic social fabric visible in the form of incest.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1175
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.6
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 86-108
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 86-108
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1175/1030
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1176
2021-11-29T12:45:34Z
tvl:ART
Anglophone Cameroon literature 1959–90: A brief overview
Ashuntantang, Joyce
Anglophone Cameroon literature
book history
literary history
postcolonialism
This article examines modern Anglophone Cameroon literature from 1959 to 1990. The article argues that like most literature emanating from the continent a proper understanding of Anglophone Cameroon literature must be predicated on an analysis of its specific socio-historical determinants. A careful analysis of the corpus of Anglophone Cameroon literature from its inception to the 1990s reveals two broad phases. The first phase covers the period from 1959 to about 1984. In the Republic of Cameroon, this period begins shortly before ‘the end’ of colonialism to the rise of Paul Biya as the second president of Cameroon. The writers during this period like their counterparts elsewhere in Africa, critique the ‘othering’ of formerly colonized people in texts written by the colonizers. To counteract this marginalization, and as a vital part of the process of decolonization, these texts seek to give voice to the ‘subaltern’ in order to expose the misrepresentation and ‘negativization’ so rampant in colonial writings. The second phase of Anglophone Cameroon literature started in the mid-eighties and reached its apex in the 1990s. The literature of this period is an imaginative response to the political, social, and economic climate of this time. The article concludes that the 1980s and 1990s were pivotal decades for Anglophone Cameroon literature. The lack of publishing opportunities abroad and at home led authors to be very industrious and ingenuous. They tailored their literary style and genre to the taste of their home audience. The result was an engaging literature that responded directly to the political, social and economic climate of the time
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1176
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.7
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 109-127
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 109-127
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1176/1031
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1177
2021-11-29T12:48:22Z
tvl:ART
Framing homosexual identities in Cameroonian literature
Ekotto, Frieda
Cameroon
collective imaginary
homosexual identities
LGBT activism
What language exists to describe the lives of women and sexual minorities who live in Cameroon? In this paper, I demonstrate how a selection of contemporary works of fiction use their narratives to create a space and language for the experiences of LGBT individuals within the cultural imaginary of Sub-Saharan Africa. Texts such as my own Jeune fille de Bona Mbella (2010), Max Lobe’s 39 Rue de Berne (2013) and Chimamanda Adichie’s “Jumping Monkey Hill” describe the personal lives of both women and sexual minorities, and show how their experiences are intertwined with socio-political realities. I give close attention to the stories’ different possible meanings, and place them in their socio-historical contexts in order to make an important intervention into the literary history of Cameroon: LGBT work must be included in our discussions of contemporary Cameroonian cultural production. It is part of our modernity.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1177
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.8
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 128-137
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 128-137
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1177/1032
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1178
2021-11-29T12:51:20Z
tvl:ART
‘A crushing curse’: Widowhood in contemporary Anglophone Cameroon literature
Ngongkum, Eunice
Cameroon literature
discrimination and stigma
widowhood
womanist theory
Moving from the premise that widows have been at the margins of literary discourse in Cameroon, this paper examines widowhood in contemporary Anglophone Cameroon literature using John Nkemngong Nkengasong’s The Widow’s Might (2006) and Alobwed’Epie’s Patching the Broken Dream (2012) as the springboard for its discussion. It argues that the factors that influence the lives of widows, especially, the options available to them and the multiplicity of interests touching on their behavior are grounded in socio-cultural parameters that shape communal consciousness. The paper equally aims at showing how these widows attempt to or actually construct new worlds for themselves by resisting such dominant cultural scripts. The paper locates its discourse within the framework of womanist ideology as propounded by Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi and Mary Modupe Kalawole.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1178
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.9
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 138-148
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 138-148
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1178/1033
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1179
2021-11-29T13:26:49Z
tvl:ART
Community theatre as instrument for community sensitisation and mobilisation
Inyang, Ekpe
African traditional system
community theatre
environmental protection
sustainable economic development
Environmental protection, sustainable economic development and good governance are important issues of the century, and theatre can play an important role in addressing them. This paper contends that community theatre is likely to offer a sustainable alternative approach towards addressing these and other current myriad issues confronting the African continent. Recognising that rural communities are proactive agents of change, their exclusion from the design, development and implementation of community theatre activities, coupled with the difficulties in sourcing and securing funding for the promotion of conventional theatre activities, are only a few of the problems likely to be encountered. The paper highlights some of the potential implementation constraints and proposes strategies that could be deployed to effectively develop and establish community theatre as part of the African traditional system with a view to influencing change at all levels of the community in particular and the nation at large.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1179
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.10
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 149-159
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 149-159
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1179/1034
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1180
2021-11-29T13:30:10Z
tvl:ART
Oral history, collective memory and socio-political criticism: A study of popular culture in Cameroon
Tangem, Donatus Fai
Cameroonian popular culture
collective memory
oral literature
sociopolitical criticism
The growing popularity of contemporary Cameroonian popular cultural production is a significant indication of the value attached to the medium as well as the appreciation of the opportunity offered by the Biya regime. As opposed to the Ahidjo era, Cameroonian popular cultural products today are preoccupied with the daily concerns of the society at large and the masses in particular who have appropriated the art, with its evolving thematic and stylistic focus, thereby making it suitable as a veritable avenue for the representation of voices. Also considered as new forms of oral literature, pop culture owes invaluable contribution to public social discourse. There is no denying therefore that the present form of popular culture is a hybrid of folk or traditional art customized in step with the exigencies of contemporary Cameroonian society. This paper articulates the relationship between historico-social reality and popular culture showing how Cameroonian popular cultural musicians use history and social realities as raw material for the configuration of creative ideology. It further demonstrates that without forfeiting artistic grandeur, popular culture acts as a reservoir of memory, collective experience and sociopolitical criticism.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1180
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.11
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 160-178
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 160-178
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1180/1035
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1181
2021-11-29T13:45:31Z
tvl:ART
Towards a poetics of decolonization: Mongo Beti’s The Poor Christ of Bomba
Tita, Charles
Discourse of resistance
Mongo Beti
national consciousness
slave narratives
The Poor Christ of Bomba (1956), Mongo Beti’s major novel, depicts the effects of French colonial infringement on the Cameroon landscape and consciousness. The novel charts the story of Father Superior Drumont, a Catholic priest assigned to the rainforest region of Cameroon around the 1930s. His professed task is to convert the indigenes of a six-tribe region to Catholicism. Despite Father Drumont’s seeming piety, he is not what he seems. Governed by the French colonial ideology of assimilation, he is bent on forcing his Christian converts to forsake their African traditions and cultural ways as a condition for Christianity. The sixa, a church establishment aimed at grooming young female converts in preparation for Christian marriage, is Father Drumont’s signature project during his twenty-year tenure at the Bomba Mission. In practice, however, the sixa is a complete mockery of Catholicism and a subversion of African traditional marriages. Father Drumont’s increasingly rebellious converts come into a full awareness of his complicity with French colonial administrators like Vidal. Unable to re-establish a strong foothold in a resistant parish, a disillusioned Father Drumont returns to France. The novel depicts an awakening of a growing “national” consciousness similar to the Harlem Renaissance that occurred in the United States in the early twentieth century. Just as slave narratives exposed the brutality of slavery as a means to promote abolition, this essay explores The Poor Christ of Bomba as a fictional slave narrative that exposes French imperialism by constructing a discourse of resistance that is bound to serve as a path to decolonization.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1181
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.12
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 179-192
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 179-192
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1181/1036
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1182
2021-11-29T13:51:47Z
tvl:ART
‘Les lendemains de révolution avortée’: Natalie Etoke's bipolarr narratives of doomed national romance
Toivanen, Anna-Leena
Anticolonial romance narrative
bipolar narratives
Nathalie Etoke
postcolonial condition
Nathalie Etoke’s novels Un amour sans papiers (1999) and Je vois du soleil dans tes yeux (2008) deal with the hardships of the African postcolonial condition in the global era through the trope of doomed romance. In these novels, the plight of the postcolonial nation-state drives people to emigrate in a search for more viable prospects. While the mobility theme addressed in her novels is typical of third-generation African literatures in general, Etoke’s vision simultaneously struggles against the postnationalist currents informing this literary paradigm. Indeed, Etoke’s novels are quite loud and didactic in their articulations of political commitment towards the nation and the continent. Etoke holds on to the anticolonial romance narrative, but at the same time cannot ignore its inevitable failures in the present. This leads to a tension that marks her work by giving it a bipolar character, one that manifests itself in the constant oscillation between utopianism and disillusionment. The bipolar quality of the texts betrays a discomfort that the narratives’ promotion of an anticolonial struggle for nationhood and decolonisation generate in a postcolonial era that keeps witnessing the failures of these romantic discourses to realise themselves. A close reading of the novels reveals that this discomfort finds its articulation in the narrative fabric of the texts.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1182
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.13
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 193-204
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 193-204
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1182/1037
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1183
2022-08-03T07:25:36Z
tvl:ART
Les traductions néerlandaises des romans francophones camerounais
Lievois, Katrien
Cameroon literature
Dutch translation
literary agents
sociology of translation
In the corpus of African francophone novels that have been translated into Dutch, some 50 titles in all, the contribution of Cameroon authors is considerable. Between 1960 and 2009, nine novels by five Cameroon writers were published in Dutch. This essay to analyses these translations using the methodology of Descriptive Translation Studies (Toury) and the sociology of translation (Heilbron and Sapiro Bilan). It examines how the Cameroon novels have been integrated into the Dutch literary system, what their position is, and most of all, to what extent the paratexts of the translated novels reflect this position. The detailed analysis of the reception of the Cameroon novels within the Dutch literary system reveals that there is a marked evolution in the way in which the publications have been selected and presented to the public. First, the classics of (post)colonial literature were translated, novels dealing with the (difficult) relations between the black colonised person and the white coloniser. At a later stage, the female perspective on contemporary challenges facing Africa becomes the sole focus of the novels in the corpus. What is less straightforward to define clearly, is the place of Dutch within the larger translation trends reflecting the international visibility of the novels. All the same, it seems safe to say that English, the most dominant global language, has not played a significant role in determining the translation history of any of the novels or authors under consideration. None of the novels in the corpus was first translated into English. In fact, the languages with a central position (Heilbron and Sapiro), German and Russian before 1989, appear to have been more influential. Three of the five authors were first published in a central language: Oyono and Beyala were translated into German, whereas Beti was translated into Russian. By contrast, two authors were first translated into a (semi-)peripheral language: Werewere into Dutch and Miano into Spanish. What appears to be important for the Dutch translations is that certain agents and promotors of translation played a crucial role in this. From that perspective, Magrit de Sablonière, who translated the first two African francophone novels, certainly merits special attention, as do two book collections devoted to europhone African literature, De Derde Spreker-Serie and Afrikaanse Bibliotheek, as well as the people behind them, Sjef Theunis and Jan Kees van der Werk.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1183
10.4314/tvl.v53i1.14
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 1 (2016); 205-217
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 1 (2016); 205-217
2309-9070
0041-476X
fra
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1183/1055
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1229
2021-11-29T16:01:38Z
tvl:ART
Urban orature and resistance: The case of Donny Elwood
Ngongkum, Eunice
Cameroon
Donny Elwood
music
post-independence space
resistance aesthetics
urban orature
From their very origins, contemporary African artistic creations have been works of resistance. Born from the struggle against colonialism, these works continued in this trajectory when independence failed to deliver on the aspiration of the masses. Today's artists follow in the footsteps of their predecessors; resisting all forms of social injustice, economic inequality and political oppression that bedevil the post-independence arena. Using resistance aesthetics as critical tool of analysis, this paper seeks to examine the concept of resistance in the music of Donny Elwood. It aims at showing that urban orature, to which category Elwood's music belongs, is one of those sites in the postcolonial context where the struggle for liberation from all forms of oppression is continuously waged. The paper argues that, with its emphasis on sense and rhythm, and not dance, Elwood's music effectively communicates the artist's protest against socio-political contradictions in the postcolonial space while sensitizing the masses on the need for change. The discursive perspectives in his art reside in the interface between social interactions in the urban milieu and urban orature (witnessed in the blend of musical varieties, instruments and message). These effectively register his social commitment as an urban artist.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2017-09-04
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1229
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.54i2.1229
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No. 2 (2017); 61-73
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No 2 (2017); 61-73
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1229/2897
Copyright (c) 2017 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1274
2021-11-29T16:01:38Z
tvl:ART
Individualism and memory: Robert Frost and Tanure Ojaide
Orhero, Mathias Iroro
existentialism
individualism
Robert Frost
Tanure Ojaide
This article examines individualism and memory in Robert Frost's A boy's will (1913) and Tanure Ojaide's The beauty I have seen (2010). The paper adopts existentialism as a critical approach. Previous studies on these poets, especially Ojaide, have neglected the individualistic nature of their poetry and stereotyped the poets. This article, thus, brings a new approach to the critical debates and scholarship on these poets. The aim of the article is to show the individualistic and existentialist nature of the poetry of Frost and Ojaide. In the analysis, individualism is examined at the level of form and content; starting with the use of the lyric form and poet-persona inclusion in the poems to the thematisation of gloom and the importance of memory, among others. The paper shows that, truly, these poets are largely individualistic in outlook, and they have expressed existentialist philosophy in their poetry.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2017-09-04
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1274
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.54i2.1274
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No. 2 (2017); 122-135
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No 2 (2017); 122-135
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1274/2900
Copyright (c) 2017 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1314
2021-11-29T16:01:38Z
tvl:ART
'n Kulturele entomologiese ondersoek na insekte in Willem Anker se Siegfried
Barendse, Joan-Mari
Willem Anker
cultural entomology
Human-Animal Studies
Siegfried
In this paper I investigate the function of the references to insects in Willem Anker's debut novel Siegfried (2007) from a cultural entomological perspective. My focus is on the character Wilhelm (Willem) Smit. Smit, a failed writer, gains his entomological knowledge from the books on insects that was left behind by the previous tenant of the house he rents on the farm of Jan Landman and his mentally disabled son Siegfried Landman. His engagement with insects goes beyond a scientific interest: he compares people and human society to insects and has a habit of eating insects. It therefore falls in the realm of cultural entomology. Since cultural entomology deals with the relationship between humans and insects, I furthermore tie my discussion to the field of Human-Animal Studies (HAS) in which the intertwinement of human and non-human animals is explored. I analyse the following three aspects in Siegfried: Smit's entomophagy (the eating of insects), Smit's general musings on the connection between humans and insects, and the comparison of the homeless people of Cape Town to insects in the novel. I investigate whether the portrayal of insect and human interaction is indicative of a posthuman interweavement or not. My conclusion is that Smit's consumption of insects is an act of desperation rather than a liberating intertwinement of human and animal. The comparison of humans to insects mainly relates to the negative perception of insects in Western culture and does not point to a posthuman transformation of human and animal.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2017-09-04
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1314
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.54i2.1314
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No. 2 (2017); 74-85
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No 2 (2017); 74-85
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1314/2898
Copyright (c) 2017 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1325
2021-11-29T16:02:13Z
tvl:ART
Land of cemetery: funereal images in the poetry of Musa Idris Okpanachi
Umezurike, Uchechukwu Peter
democracy
funeral imagery
necropolitics
Nigerian literature
Musa Idris Okpanachi
This paper focuses on Musa Idris Okpanachi’s poetry: The Eaters of the Living (2007), From the Margins of Paradise (2012), and Music of the Dead (2016). Nigeria, even after the military had relinquished power over a decade ago, is still faced with the issues that provoked the trope of protest in much of the poetry published between the mid-eighties and late nineties. Okpanachi’s poetry revisits these issues, demonstrating that democracy has been no less horrifying than military despotism. Dark, haunting images of blood, corpses, and cemetery recur in all three collections, depicting the regularity of death in the nation. I argue that Okpanachi employs funereal imagery to comment on the state’s morbid relationship with its citizenry. The Nigerian state is represented as murderous, so death fulfills its political objective. I conclude that although Okpanachi articulates a cynical commentary on postcolonial Nigeria, he marshals his creative energies to illuminate the political moment of his time.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2018-08-30
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1325
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i2.1325
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No. 2 (2018); 134-145
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No 2 (2018); 134-145
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1325/7103
West Africa
Copyright (c) 2018 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1462
2023-02-10T13:18:56Z
tvl:ART
Thomas Mofolo: The man, the writer and his contexts
Gill, Stephen
Lesotho history
Mofolo family tree
Morija Sesuto Book Depot
Thomas Mofolo biography.
A substantial corpus of research has been published on Thomas Mofolo since the 1930s. Earlier portraits of Mofolo as a person leave much room for further amplification and improvement. The present research seeks to greatly enhance our understanding of Thomas Mofolo (1876-1948) by using a wealth of archival material, much of which is located at Morija Museum and Archives, and interviews with a variety of elderly informants, including Mofolo's last surviving daughter and other family members. As a result, Mofolo can now be seen more clearly as a person within the context of his large extended family, their antecedents in the wider region, his upbringing and educational formation, three successive marriages, professional life and business operations in a number of different contexts, involvement in political life, and the changing nature of his relationship with the church. The current article focuses on Mofolo's antecedents up until he began his literary career in 1905-6 at Morija, a subject that has received inadequate attention until now. By adding considerable texture to his early life and family history, as well as the historical and religious contexts and currents in which he was raised at Hermon, Qomoqomong and Morija, Thomas Mofolo emerges more clearly as an historical figure. For example, as a boy, we learn that Thomas imbibed a great deal from his father Abner Ramofolo Mofolo, a very hard-working and practically-oriented man, who was himself a gifted storyteller. Given the possibility of pursuing higher studies through the Protestant PEMS Mission, Thomas grabbed this opportunity and came to Morija at a particularly fruitful time during the 1890s, a time of ferment and great expectations. Mofolo, as part of an emerging cadre of "progressive ones" (bahlalefi or matsoelopele), developed his linguistic skills and eloquence to the point where, with the support of colleagues, he could dare to attempt something new, a creative synthesis of various forms of storytelling, indigenous and exogenous, in written Sesotho. His literary output has proved to be of enduring significance, and in the process he became, perhaps inadvertently, the father of the African novel.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1462
10.17159/tvl.v.53i2.2
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 2 (2016); 15-38
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 2 (2016); 15-38
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1462/1216
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1463
2023-02-10T13:18:56Z
tvl:ART
The Mofolo effect and the substance of Lesotho literature in English
Shava, Piniel Viriri
Kolobe, Lesole
Lesotho literature
literary history
Thomas Mofolo
This article interrogates a number of facets of Lesotho literature in English and Thomas Mofolo's role in it. We are deliberately focusing on literature written in English and not in Sesotho, as the latter has been covered substantially by others (see Swanepoel; Ntuli and Swanepoel), and we find it necessary to stake claims from Lesotho on the English literary map of southern Africa. Historically, the emergence and evolution of literature in Lesotho has been closely linked to the evangelical mission of the church and the dominance of Sesotho as a sole linguistic vehicle for communication, catechistic instruction and creative imagination. This scenario has meant that, for years, literature written in the vernacular - Sesotho - has tended to take pride of place at the expense of literary writing in English or in any other language. With time, however, translated works and original literature written in English have arisen and developed, though with almost imperceptible gradualism. This article sets out to describe, anatomise and judge (Hoffman 199) Lesotho literature in English since the days of Mofolo. The paper also attempts to define the identity of this literature.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1463
10.17159/tvl.v.53i2.3
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 2 (2016); 39-47
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 2 (2016); 39-47
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1463/1217
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1464
2023-02-10T13:18:56Z
tvl:ART
Towards silence: Thomas Mofolo, small literatures and poor translation
Ricard, Alain
African literature in translation
missionary publishers
Shaka
Thomas Mofolo
In his 2008 Nobel lecture, J. M. G. Le Clézio salutes all the writers with whom he lived, and at times against whom he argued, especially African writers: Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Ahmadou Kourouma, Mongo Beti, Alan Paton, with a concluding reference to Chaka by Thomas Mofolo. The other writers are well known, but Mofolo has always been largely ignored, or even misrepresented, by historians of literature. My first contact with the (excellent) French translation of Plaatje's Mhudi (1930) was a letter in which I was protesting against his inclusion of Mofolo in an anthology of Anglophone writers: as if the Sesotho text had no relevance; as if there was not a specific history of Sesotho textuality. It is my argument that for an innovative, original, but geographically marginal writer, such as Mofolo, superficial readings place a veil of ignorance on his books and relegate them to an obscure corner of Weltliteratur. My own reading has been influenced by the history of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society (PEMS) and by the works of Tim Couzens. Drawing on the principle of coherence and seeing a continuity between Mofolo's literary project and his politics, I postulate a unity to his works and I am curious about his entire oeuvre and of course the position of Chaka in it. I am also curious about the various interpretations, produced by a series of translations, from 1930 up to 2007 which provide a frame of interpretation
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1464
10.17159/tvl.v.53i2.4
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 2 (2016); 48-62
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 2 (2016); 48-62
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1464/1218
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1465
2023-02-10T13:18:56Z
tvl:ART
Land, botho and identity in Thomas Mofolo's novels
Chaka, Limakatso
botho
nationhood
self-identification
Thomas Mofolo
Mofolo's novel Pitseng (1910) (Pitseng: The search for true love) is a conversion narrative which deals with the transition of society from tradition to modernity. The author utilises a double quest narrative and a love story to represent major challenges facing the Basotho nation of the colonial epoch. The protagonist Katse is an evangelist who brings literacy and Christianity to the Pitseng valley where his predecessors have failed because of their lack of compassion for rural society. Katse's success is based on his humanistic approach to the Christian message. He becomes a role model for two young Christians, Alfred Phakoe and Aria Sebaka, who marry through his influence and become members of the future elite of a nascent modern Lesotho. The intention of this article is to demonstrate the link between Lesotho's social history and the manner in which Mofolo represents the landscape, language, culture, religion and national history in his work to forge a positive image of a na- tion arguing for economic and political autonomy. Mofolo's writing relies heavily on history and various discourses of the 1880s and the early 1900s to create a historically meaningful text which brings to light the interconnectedness between the real and the fictive.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1465
10.17159/tvl.v.53i2.5
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 2 (2016); 63-86
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 2 (2016); 63-86
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1465/1219
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1466
2023-02-10T13:18:56Z
tvl:ART
‘… oi, oi! … you must go by the right path’: Mofolo’s Chaka revisited via the original text
Krog, Antjie
African philosophy
Chaka
interconnectedness
Thomas Mofolo
translation
Thomas Mofolo never defended himself against accusations that his novel Chaka distorts historical facts to express anti-Nguni sentiments under the guise of Christianity. But in a way he foreshadowed the possibility of it, by including as part of his novel a sentence which has become one of his most analysed: “But since it is not our purpose to recount all the affairs of his [Chaka’s] life, we have chosen only one part which suits our present purpose”. Mofolo does not elaborate on what he means by “our present purpose”, but simply continues with the story. By focusing on the original Sesotho text, indigenous Zulu customs, African philosophy and the diversions from historical facts, this article explores other possibilities for what could have been Mofolo’s “present purpose”. My reading is that he tries to plumb what comprises ethical behaviour within a traditionally-valued, pre-Christian ethos, making Chaka arguably one of the earliest philosophical, ethical investigations via the form of the novel on the African continent.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1466
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.53i2.1466
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 2 (2016); 87-97
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 2 (2016); 87-97
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1466/1220
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1473
2023-02-10T13:18:56Z
tvl:ART
Translating extra-linguistic culture-bound concepts in Mofolo: a daunting challenge to literary translators
Sebotsa, Mosisili
culture-bound extra-linguistic elements
functional equivalence
impasse of meaning
mistranslation
semantic range
translation by omission.
Translating extra-linguistic culture-bound concepts in Mofolo presents a daunting challenge to literary translators as such concepts require that the translator possess a substantial amount of knowledge and background of the Sesotho culture. The present study undertakes a comparative analysis of Thomas Mofolo’s Moeti oa Bochabela and its translations Traveller to the East (English) and L’homme qui marchait vers le soleil levant (French) to highlight problems encountered due to lack of understanding of culture-bound extra-linguistic elements (ECE). The article also aims to bring to light translation techniques employed and culture related factors that may hinder the translator from rendering the intended meaning with high accuracy. The semantic analysis of culture-bound extra-linguistic elements shows how readers of the English and French translation may not have a full grasp of the book due to lack of functional equivalence and the disparity in semantic range between Sesotho and the European languages. The impasse of meaning is evidenced throughout the book by the number of words that were either left untranslated or mistranslated as can be observed in the translation of the two poems addressed to Fekisi’s cows. The paper uses some of the untranslated and mistranslated elements to show that there is no such a thing as an absolute translation.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1473
10.17159/tvl.v.53i2.8
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 2 (2016); 105-116
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 2 (2016); 105-116
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1473/1221
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1474
2023-02-10T13:18:56Z
tvl:ART
Insights into translation and the original text: Thomas Mofolo's Chaka
Nakin, Moroesi R,
Kock, Inie J.
cultural specificity
non-equivalence
Thomas Mofolo
translation strategies
This paper aims to explore the strategies applied during the translation of chosen passages from the original Sesotho text of Chaka by Thomas Mofolo into English. Insights expressed here originate from participation in the translation workshops during the conference on “Translating Mofolo”. Different stages of the translation process are identified and discussed, while the main emphasis is placed on resolving instances of non-equivalence between the source text and the target text. Non-equivalence includes among other things, culture-specific words and expressions in the source language, grammatical considerations in both the source text and the target text, and the relationship between linguistic units in context. Culture specific words and expressions relate to idiomatic expressions and fixed combinations of words in the source and target texts. Grammatical considerations refer to the translation of Sesotho-specific moods and tenses, number, person, etc., into English, while the relationship between linguistic units is discussed with regard to cohesion, reference and other related cohesive devices in context.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1474
10.17159/tvl.v.53i2.9
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 2 (2016); 117-127
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 2 (2016); 117-127
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1474/1222
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1480
2023-02-10T13:18:56Z
tvl:ART
Thomas Mofolo’s sentence design in Chaka approached in translation
Swanepoel, Christiaan
literary translation
topography of the page
punctuation marks
source language (SL)
target language (TL)
Mofolo’s sentence design in Chaka is a challenge to the translator, not only because of the significant length of the sentences, but in particular for the extensive use of the semicolon, appearing within sentences of “paragraph-length”. This prompted the suggestion that it be referred to as the “semicolon phrase”. This article explores this stylistic feature, amongst others by responding to several compelling questions, ranging from how five translators of the work approached it in their respective languages, possible attitudes and influences, and likely intentions on the part of the author. With regard to the question of how the semicolon phrase should be approached in translation, it is argued that the topography of the page vests in the author who is licensed to shape the text as s/he wishes. Punctuation marks, however, appear to be more negotiable than narrative content, though the shape of the source text should be respected as far as possible. At the same time the target text needs to be approached in accordance with the conventions at work in the target language. The result is a challenging balancing act requiring considerable discretion.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1480
10.17159/tvl.v.53i2.11
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 2 (2016); 132-146
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 2 (2016); 132-146
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1480/1241
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1481
2023-02-10T13:18:56Z
tvl:ART
‘A reflection of a reflection’: Notes on representational and ethical possibilities in Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka
Schaffer, Alfred
adaptation
anachronism
ethics
metamodernism
poetry
Thomas Mofolo
translation
In January 2014, I published a Dutch poetry volume Mens Dier Ding (Man Animal Thing) in the Netherlands and Belgium. The book is partly based on research around the historical figure of Chaka, and especially Chaka’s fictional representation in three versions of Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka, namely the English translation by F. H. Dutton, the later translation by Daniel P. Kunene, and the Afrikaans translation by Chris Swanepoel. In other words, Man Animal Thing is a work of poetic fiction based on (or “inspired by”) a work of fiction. This brings with it representational and ethical problems: what is used from which text, what is the tipping point between writing and merely copying, for which type of reader in which context and culture is the new work of fiction meant, and what are the consequences of portraying and imaging a fictional and historical figure? This article tries to highlight several aspects of the creative process of misreading, researching, writing, portraying and transforming in Mens Dier Ding. It explores how “translating” a work of fiction into another work of fiction is at the heart of the continuing conversation that is literature, and may even be a metaphor for postmodern, or better, metamodern literature, which is characterised by an oscillation between both modernism and postmodernism
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1481
10.17159/tvl.v.53i2.12
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 2 (2016); 147-160
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 2 (2016); 147-160
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1481/1242
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1486
2023-02-10T13:18:56Z
tvl:ART
The transculturation of Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka
Vassilatos, Alexia
Chaka
Francophonie
Negritude
Thomas Mofolo
transculturation
Léopold Sédar Sengho
Often, literary cultures from Anglophone Africa and Francophone Africa are treated as separate intellectual spheres. In this paper, I seek to understand the dialogue between these cultures. Thomas Mofolo’s novel Chaka (1925), drawn from oral lore and written in Sotho by a Sotho writer, is about the life and times of the founder of the Zulu nation, King Chaka. I will show that Chaka is a transcultural text, which is at the source of a complex intellectual relationship between Southern Africa and Francophone Africa within the literature on Chaka. In particular, I am interested in the way in which an African writer from Lesotho could have shaped another African writer’s ideas about the Zulu King—Senegalese poet Léopold Sédar Senghor—which, in turn, triggered a series of Africanist interpretations and rewritings. Through these multiple texts the impact of Chaka on African literature and ideology has been immeasurable. I will discuss Thomas Mofolo’s novel contribution to Chaka’s mythical status in Francophone African literature and Africanist ideology, mainly by way of the Negritude movement. In my analysis I postulate that the complexity of Mofolo’s text and its transculturation stems from the novel’s many forms/(trans)form(ations).
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2016-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1486
10.17159/tvl.v.53i2.13
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No. 2 (2016); 161-174
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 53 No 2 (2016); 161-174
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1486/1243
Copyright (c) 2016 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1548
2021-11-29T16:01:57Z
tvl:ART
Of dirt, disinfection and purgation: Discursive construction of state violence in selected contemporary Zimbabwean literature
Ncube, Gibson
dirt
filth
disease
dissenting voices
state violence
power
nationalism
Zimbabwe
memory and belonging
discursive construction
Gukurahundi massacres
Operation Murambatsvina
This paper examines post-independent Zimbabwean literary narratives which engage with how the ruling ZANU-PF government frames dissenting voices as constituting dirt, filth and undesirability. Making use of Achille Mbembe's postulations on the "vulgarity of power" and Kenneth W. Harrow's readings of the politics of dirt, the central thesis of this paper is that the troping of dirt and state sponsored violence are closely related to the themes of memory and belonging. Literary works by writers such as Chistopher Mlalazi, NoViolet Bulawayo and John Eppel become self-effacing speech acts that are involved in reimagining and revisioning our understanding of power dynamics and how this affects human and social experiences.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2018-03-19
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1548
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i1.1548
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No. 1 (2018); 41-53
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No 1 (2018); 41-53
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1548/6467
Southern Africa
Copyright (c) 2018 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1552
2021-11-29T16:01:57Z
tvl:ART
Images of woman and the search for happiness in Cynthia Jele's Happiness is a four letter word
Makombe, Rodwell
African culture
sisterhood
male companionship
womanism
Over the years, African ‘feminist’ scholars have expressed reservations about embracing feminism as an analytical framework for theorizing issues that affect African women. This is particularly because in many African societies, feminism has been perceived as a negative influence that seeks to tear the cultural fabric and value systems of African communities. Some scholars such as Clenora Hudson-Weems, Chikenje Ogunyemi, Tiamoyo Karenga and Chimbuko Tembo contend that feminism as developed by Western scholars is incapable of addressing context-specific concerns of African women. As a result, they developed womanism as an alternative framework for analysing the realities of women in African cultures. Womanism is premised on the view that African women need an Afrocentric theory that can adequately deal with their specific struggles. Drawing from ideas that have been developed by womanist scholars, this article critically interrogates the portrayal of women in Cynthia Jele’s Happiness is a four-letter word (2010), with particular focus on the choices that they make in love relationships, marriage and motherhood. My argument is that Jele’s text affirms the womanist view that African women exist within a specific cultural context that shapes their needs, aspirations and choices in a different way.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2018-01-26
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1552
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i1.1552
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No. 1 (2018); 110-121
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No 1 (2018); 110-121
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1552/6477
Southern Africa
Copyright (c) 2018 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1571
2021-11-29T16:01:57Z
tvl:ART
La traversée de l’Atlantique ou la mort ? Une réflexion critique sur la notion d’échange
Mwepu, Patrick Kabeya
Julien Kilanga Musinde
Henri Lopes
the other
return to Africa
lost identity
Crossing the Atlantic or dying? Critical reflexion on the concept of exchange
This paper investigates the validity of the concept of cultural exchange through a few African novels, comparing different perspectives of journeys. While some African writers attempt to depict their most immediate environment, making themselves appear as nationalist as possible, one can notice however that more and more other African writers choose to encapsulate their literary universe in changing geographic settings: Their writing depicts the mobility of characters aiming at reaching new frontiers. These new spaces, always to be discovered, provide African writers with a platform to depict subjectivities that cognitively enrich themselves on contact with newer and different world visions. However, the crossing into the other world (on the other bank of the river) seems not always to offer a space for mutual cultural exchange; it might be fatal and lead to identity assassination, a journey of death.
rossing the Atlantic or dying? Critical reflexion on the concept of exchange
This paper investigates the validity of the concept of "cultural exchange" through a few African novels, comparing different perspectives of journeys. While some African writers attempt to depict their most immediate environment, making themselves appear as nationalist as possible, one can notice however that more and more other African writers choose to encapsulate their literary universe in changing geographic settings: Their writing depicts the mobility of characters aiming at reaching new frontiers. These new spaces, always to be discovered, provide African writers with a platform to depict subjectivities that cognitively enrich themselves on contact with newer and different world visions. However, the crossing into the other world (on the other bank of the river) seems not always to offer a space for mutual cultural exchange; it might be fatal and lead to identity "assassination" , "a journey of death".
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2018-03-19
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1571
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i1.1571
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No. 1 (2018); 81-89
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No 1 (2018); 81-89
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1571/6472
West Africa
Copyright (c) 2018 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1582
2021-11-29T16:01:57Z
tvl:ART
Revisiting trauma and homo religiosus in selected texts by Mongo Beti and Véronique Tadjo
Muvuti, Shelton
Homo Religiosus
trauma
religiosity
genocide
Mongo Beti
Véronique Tadjo
This paper locates religion within the literary narratives of traumatogenic experiences such as war and genocide as depicted in the novels The Poor Christ of Bomba by Mongo Beti and Véronique Tadjo's The Shadows of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda. In spite of evident reference to the role played by religion in traumatic and traumatising encounters, it features simply as a footnote to the ethnic tensions that underpin these encounters. Drawing on the theoretical work of Kurtz (2014) and other scholars as well as casting a glance at anticolonial and postcolonial Francophone literatures, this paper argues that trauma in modern postcolonial Francophone literature is ubiquitous. It reveals itself in the post-independence contradictions and injustices as depicted by modern francophone authors and thinkers whose subject matter is largely dominated by such motifs as corruption, war, violence, insanity, rape, poverty, disillusionment, which all accommodate a direct challenge to religion. The absence of religiosity in trauma literature suggests a reversal of the socio-historical stereotype that frames Africans as highly religious, and whose opposition to religion is a result of enlightenment through education.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2018-03-19
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1582
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i1.1582
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No. 1 (2018); 28-40
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No 1 (2018); 28-40
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1582/6470
Southern Africa
Copyright (c) 2018 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1583
2021-11-29T16:01:57Z
tvl:ART
Contemporary Zimbabwean popular music in the context of adversities
Tivenga, Doreen Rumbidzai
ghetto youth
resistance
Winky D
Zimbabwe urban grooves music
popular music
Contemporary Zimbabwean popular and urban genres of music namely, urban grooves and its variant Zimdancehall emerged and continue to exist at a time Zimbabwe is grappling with socio-economic and political adversities. The music is part of crucial artistic forms and dissent, hence for the ordinary Zimbabweans, it plays a significant role, detailing their experiences and survival strategies and influencing their patterns of entertainment and daily cultural practises. This article which is informed by popular culture theorists such as Karin Barber (1987) and John Fiske (1989) makes a textual analysis of Winky D's (2015) songs "Disappear", "Copyrights" and "Survivor" to examine the power of the songs in exploring the survival strategies employed by ordinary Zimbabweans in dealing with their experiences. The paper examines how the music is a source of power that fosters a response resonating with a postcolonial urban youth cultural activism seeking to empower the ordinary Zimbabweans to autonomously transcend their adversities and take control of their destinies in a country where the ruling elite are failing to improve the nation's socio-economic conditions.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2018-03-20
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1583
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i1.1583
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No. 1 (2018); 134-148
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No 1 (2018); 134-148
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1583/6482
Southern Africa
Copyright (c) 2018 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1584
2021-11-29T16:01:57Z
tvl:ART
Narrating the past: reflections on recent Black Afrikaans writing
van Wyk, Steward
History
nostalgia
romance
tragedy
dystopia
A return to the past has been a dominant feature of recent Afrikaans writing. This is evident in the many novels re-visiting the Anglo-Boer War or recounting incidents from the apartheid past. The approaches include the debunking of myths and a nostalgic longing for the good old days. Whether this is true of the small body of Black Afrikaans writing, given its ambivalent relationship to the canon, needs to be investigated. A number of texts that was published recently either had a clear autobiographical background or emanated from the desire and imperative to "tell our own stories from our communities". This paper explores the way that the past is narrated in a number of selected texts by i.a. Fatima Osman, Simon Bruinders, Ronelda Kamfer and Valda Jansen. In the case of the texts by the firstmentioned authors the narrative is about survival, determination and the triumph of the human spirit in the face of a dehumanising system like apartheid. In the latter texts one finds elements of dystopia and disillusionment with the past as an ydill. It also gives an unsentimental view of the state of mind and events playing out in communities in the present. The texts furthermore grapples with textual strategies to represent history and the inability at times to comprehend the past.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2018-03-19
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1584
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i1.1584
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No. 1 (2018); 70-80
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No 1 (2018); 70-80
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1584/6490
Southern Africa
Copyright (c) 2018 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1619
2021-11-29T16:01:38Z
tvl:ART
Rape victims and victimisers in Herbstein's Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Oduwobi, Oluyomi
Manu Herbstein
neo-slave narrative
postcolonial theory
rape
trans-Atlantic slave trade
women
This paper examines how Manu Herbstein employs his fictionalised neo-slave narrative entitled Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade to address the issue of sexual violence against women and to foreground the trans-Atlantic rape identities of victims and victimisers in relation to race, gender, class and religion. An appraisal of Herbstein's representations within the framework of postcolonial theory reveals how Herbstein deviates from the stereotypical norm of narrating the rape of female captives and slaves during the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade by creating graphic rape images in his narration. This study therefore shows that a postcolonial reading of Herbstein's novel addresses the representations of rape and male sexual aggression in literary discourse and contributes to the arguments on sexual violence against women from the past to the present.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2017-09-04
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1619
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.54i2.1619
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No. 2 (2017); 100-111
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No 2 (2017); 100-111
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1619/2899
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1619/4300
Copyright (c) 2017 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1631
2023-09-21T08:50:02Z
tvl:ART
Modern Swahili: an integration of Arabic culture into Swahili literature
Mwaliwa, Hanah Chaga
Arabic
cultural integration
linguistic borrowing
Swahili literature
Due to her geographical position, the African continent has for many centuries hosted visitors from other continents such as Asia and Europe. Such visitors came to Africa as explorers, missionaries, traders and colonialists. Over the years, the continent has played host to the Chinese, Portuguese, Persians, Indians, Arabs and Europeans. Arabs have had a particularly long history of interaction with East African people, and have therefore made a significant contribution to the development of the Swahili language. Swahili is an African native language of Bantu origin which had been in existence before the arrival of Arabs in East Africa. The long period of interaction between Arabs and the locals led to linguistic borrowing mainly from Arabic to Swahili. The presence of loanwords in Swahili is evidence of cultural interaction between the Swahili and Arabic people. The Arabic words are borrowed from diverse registers of the language. Hence, Swahili literature is loaded with Arabic cultural aspects through Arabic loanwords. Many literary works are examples of Swahili literature that contains such words. As a result, there is evidence of Swahili integrating Arabic culture in its literature, an aspect that this paper seeks to highlight.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2018-08-30
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1631
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i2.1631
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No. 2 (2018); 120-133
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No 2 (2018); 120-133
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1631/7102
East Africa
Copyright (c) 2018 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1646
2021-11-29T16:01:57Z
tvl:ART
Véronique Tadjo: Is there hope beyond the divisions in contemporary Africa?
Snyman, Elisabeth
Véronique Tadjo
Francophone women's writing
Social divisions within a nation
This article proposes a reading of three texts The Blind Kingdom (1990), Queen Pokou. Concerto for a sacrifice (2004) and Far from my Father (2010) written by the Ivorian author Véronique Tadjo, in order to examine the author's representation of, and reflexion on separation and division, be it within a nation, amongst groups, or in the heart of a family. In Tadjo's novelistic universe, such divisions often require the intervention of a female protagonist, whose own existence is deeply influenced by tensions and frictions between two opposing camps. I shall argue that the agency of these protagonists is never futile and may even point to a way to go beyond the original divisions. Tadjo's representation of division in these three texts goes beyond generic boundaries to open up a rich variety of perspectives on the problems she deals with. I shall demonstrate how the author draws on various genres such as poetry, the African folktale, the novel, as well as autofiction in order to engage the reader in a profound reflexion on the current state and future of the African continent.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2018-03-19
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1646
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i1.1646
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No. 1 (2018); 18-27
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No 1 (2018); 18-27
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1646/6469
West Africa
Copyright (c) 2018 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1723
2021-11-29T16:01:38Z
tvl:ART
Building the Islamic moral self: Sufi Abed’s Bustan Fatimah ma‘a Bustan ‘A’ishah
Dadoo, Yousuf
Rafudeen, Mohammed Auwais
moral self
remembering God
South Africa
Sufi Abed
Urdu literature
Bustan Fatimah
Bustan 'A'ishah
Sufi Abed Mian Usmani (1898-1945) of Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, authored some ten religious books in Urdu and Gujerati, which appeared to have a considerable impact on the local community there, as well as more broadly for South African Muslims of Indian descent, and even for some Muslims of India. However, apart from two academic contributions, his work and legacy remain largely unexplored. This essay aims to build upon those contributions by analysing another of his hitherto unexamined Urdu works, namely, Bustan Fatimah ma' Bustan 'A'ishah (The garden of Fatimahwith the garden of 'A'ishah). It argues that these two works, when seen as a totality, seek to build the moral self.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2017-09-04
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1723
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.54i2.1723
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No. 2 (2017); 42-60
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 54 No 2 (2017); 42-60
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1723/2892
Copyright (c) 2017 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1763
2021-11-27T09:55:35Z
tvl:ART
Bodily disintegration and successful ageing in Body Bereft by Antjie Krog
Pretorius, Antoinette
Antjie Krog
Body Bereft
gerontology
succesful ageing
bodily deterioration
Antjie Krog’s Body Bereft (2006) details both the bodily changes brought about by older age and the ways in which these changes fracture a person’s previously-stable sense of self. This article reads Krog’s depiction of the ageing body in a small selection of poems from this collection in relation to the unavoidable reality of bodily decay and what is referred to in gerontological theory as ‘successful ageing’. This tension dominates large parts of the gerontological field, and can be seen in Krog’s ambivalent representation of older age in Body Bereft. Through close readings of a number of poems, I will investigate the ways in which Krog problematises the relationship between the lived experience of older age with its concomitant sense of deterioration, and the societal impetus to age well and accept ageing with magnanimity. I will demonstrate that this collection foregrounds the poet’s refusal to accept pre-existing discourses that delimit ageing as something either to bemoan or celebrate. I will conclude that this refusal finds particular expression in her poems “dommelfei / crone in the woods” and “how do you say this”.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1763
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.52i2.1763
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 2 (2015); 21-32
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 2 (2015); 21-32
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1763/1511
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1765
2021-11-27T07:57:30Z
tvl:ART
Mqhayi's chapter and verse: Kees van die Kalahari becoming u-Adonisi wasentlango
Krog, Antjie
Magona, Sindiwe
Kees van die Kalahari
S. B. and G. C. Hobson
S. E. K. Mqhayi
translation strategy
translation
u-Adonisi wasentlango
Xhosa’s best and most well-known imbongi and poet, S. E. K. Mqhayi, once translated an Afrikaans book Kees van die Kalahari into Xhosa—a story about the trials and tribulations of a leader baboon and his tribe. The Xhosa translation had been prescribed for generations of pupils and became one of the language’s most well-known texts. As part of a larger project which will compare the two texts in their totality, this essay is a preliminary exercise to determine the history of the translated text and more specifically to explore what Mqhayi’s possible translation strategies could have been which rendered the book so ‘home- grown’. According to Sindiwe Magona, ‘It was prescribed to me in high school and I taught it, but neither I, nor my colleagues, realised that it was a translation. And even now, there is no feeling that behind this text there is another one, it feels so authentic!’ There are in fact two other texts: the original English text which spawned the well-known Afrikaans book Kees van die Kalahari, written/translated by the brothers S. B. and G. C. Hobson. The Afrikaans text won the coveted Afrikaans Hertzog Prize for prose and was reprinted 33 times.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1765
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.1
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 5-17
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 5-17
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1765/1512
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1767
2021-11-27T07:58:27Z
tvl:ART
Peter Blum and Italy: ‘Italië het ons aangegryp’
Voss, Tony
Afrikaans poetry
G. G. Belli
Italy
J. W. von Goethe
Kaaps (Afrikaans language variety)
Peter Blum
Sonetti Romaneschi
Early readers of the two volumes of verse—Steenbok tot poolsee (“Capricorn to Polar Sea”, 1955) and Enklaves van die lig (“Enclaves of the Light”, 1958)—of Peter Blum (1925–90) recognised his original and distinctive grasp of Afrikaans, although he was not a native speaker, and acknowledged that his work brought to the language a strong sense of European culture and history. Within that Europeanness, the Italian dimension of Blum’s work is explored here. There are some biographical sources for the sensitivity to and knowledge of Italy revealed in the poetry. This paper explores particularly Blum’s “Kaapse sonnette” (“Cape Sonnets”), versions of some of the Sonetti Romaneschi of G. G. Belli (1791–1863), transposed to Cape Town of the 1950s, and “Die klok in die newel: ’n narrasie in twee episodes” (“The Bell in the Mist: A Narration in Two Episodes”), an autobiographical mini-epic that brings together Blum’s adolescence and young manhood in an account of his calling as a poet. Although Blum chose Afrikaans as his poetic medium, and rejected his native German, his embrace of Italy was largely mediated by his reading of Goethe.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1767
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.2
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 18-30
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 18-30
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1767/1513
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1771
2021-11-27T07:59:21Z
tvl:ART
Breyten Breytenbach se uitbeelding van die gevangenis
Crous, Marius
Breyten Breytenbach
life in prison
Michel Foucault
panopticism
prison writing
This article examines Breyten Breytenbach’s representation of the prison, particularly in his collection of prison poems, Die ongedanste dans (“The undanced dance”, 2005). Using Foucault’s seminal work on the birth of the prison as a theoretical point of departure, this analysis shows how Breytenbach describes the buildings, life within prison, past-times in prison, as well as indicate to what extent the language and expressions used by the prisoners have influenced his writing. A central aspect of Foucault’s writing on the prison is the concept of panopticism and in Breytenbach’s poetry there is a definite reference to elements pertaining to this such as constant surveillance and the omnipresence of the wardens. In his poems written in prison there is a definite awareness of the spacing of the body and the exertion of power over the body of the prisoner as other by the wardens, who with their guns and batons are the one wielding the power in prison.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1771
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.3
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 31-44
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 31-44
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1771/1514
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1772
2021-11-27T08:00:15Z
tvl:ART
Ambivalensie in die verhouding tussen slaaf en meester in Philida deur André P. Brink
Bothma, Mathilda
André Brink
ambivalence
identity
, slave-master relationships
Philida (novel)
This article appropriates the views of critics in an effort to come closer to an understanding of the sensations, experiences and the general plight of slaves in a (post)-colonial context, in particular the farm Zandvliet, as well as the broader South-African society as represented in Philida. In this regard, for instance, the critical enunciations of Bill Ashcroft concerning place and displacement and the bearing thereof on the lives of the colonised is considered, as well as the views of Homi Bhabha on ambivalence related to colonial discourse. According to Bhabha the “other” is the coloniser’s construct and his relationship with the “other” is characterised by ambivalence and inconsistency. The article refers to the intertextual relations of Philida to earlier Brink novels, to the paratextual relations of the cover to the text, and to the text’s relations to South African history.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1772
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.4
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 45-56
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 45-56
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1772/1515
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1773
2021-11-27T08:01:10Z
tvl:ART
André P. Brink se posisie in die Afrikaanse literêre sisteem van die 1960’s
Senekal, Burgert A.
Afrikaans literature
André P. Brink
literary system
polysystem
Sestigers
social network analysis (SNA)
This article investigates Andre P. Brink’s role and position in the Afrikaans literary system of the 1960s. It is found that Brink was a very active role player in drama and prose, both as a writer and as a critic, and his activity is compared with every other role player in these subsystems. The paper examines which texts were studied by the largest number of persons in the whole literary system as well as in the subsystems of the drama and prose, and it is indicated that Brink’s texts played an important role in this respect by garnering the attention of a large number of critics and literary historians. Finally, Brink’s texts are positioned in the entire Afrikaans literary system of the decade, and it is found that his works occupy a central position.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1773
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.5
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 57-72
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 57-72
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1773/1516
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1775
2021-11-27T08:02:22Z
tvl:ART
To a dubious critical salvation: Etienne Leroux and the canons of South African English criticism
Penfold, Greg
de Kock, Leon
Afrikaans literature
cross-cultural reception
Etienne Leroux
literary patronage systems
rewriting
Seven Days at the Silbersteins
South African English criticism
translation
This article presents a case study in cross-cultural literary reception following the act of literary translation—in this instance, of author Etienne Leroux—from Afrikaans into English. It describes the literary reception of Leroux in general terms, in Afrikaans and Dutch in the first place and subsequently in English (South Africanist) criticism. Our focus falls on the translation and subsequent reception of Leroux’s major novel, Sewe dae by die Silbersteins, first published in Afrikaans in 1962, and crowned with the Hertzog Prize in 1964. The novel’s rendering into English by poet Charles Eglington (Seven Days at the Silbersteins) in 1964 provides the centrepoint of our study. We argue that this translation, along with the several forms of what André Lefevere calls “rewriting” (in literary-critical registers) that it engendered, created disjunctive moments of cross-lingual critical reception in which dubious conclusions hardened into routine paraphrase or accepted “wisdom” in English criticism. By “rewriting” in this case, following Lefevere, we mean inter-lingual re descriptions of literary works within literary-critical histories or reviews that are often based on translations, and on readings of them in relative isolation from their fuller context in the original language (here, Afrikaans).
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1775
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.6
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 73-93
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 73-93
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1775/1517
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1776
2021-11-27T08:03:31Z
tvl:ART
Schrijven na Auschwitz, na apartheid, na de digital turn
T'Sjoen, Yves
Afrikaans poetry
committed poetry
digital turn
Dutch poetry
T.W. Adorno
In this paper I discuss the concept of “engaged poetry” and the position of poetry with a so-called ethic dimension in the digital era. Taking the famous aphorism by Theodor W. Adorno as a starting point—“Nach Auschwitz ein Gedicht zu schreiben, ist barbarisch” (“After Auschwitz writing poetry is barbaric”)—and the two different interpretations of that statement formulated by the philosopher himself, I consider the relevance of the term “engaged literature”. I am aware that this article not only summarizes Adorno’s points of view, but I also present my own personal poetics as an academic and as a reader of modern poetry. I refer to contemporary poetry of Afrikaans in South Africa and Dutch, more particularly literature in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, to illustrate my point.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1776
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.7
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 94-112
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 94-112
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1776/1518
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1777
2021-11-27T08:04:36Z
tvl:ART
Shadows of life, death and survival in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide
de Beer, Anna-Marie
Snyman, Elisabeth
devoir de mémoire
Esther Mujawayo
female survivor
, Monique Ilboudo
rape
representation of trauma
Rwandan genocide
testimony
Véronique Tadjo
Various writers and survivors have offered literary responses to the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda. In 1998, a group of African intellectuals, mostly non-Rwandans, of whom two were female authors, participated in a collective writing project, Rwanda: écrire par devoir de mémoire, tasked to tell the story of the genocide. Genocide survivor, sociologist and psychotherapist, Esther Mujawayo, has since narrated her own story. Although critics have explored the portrayal of trauma in literature in other texts and contexts, a comparative study between these three texts of female authors; one survivor and two intellectuals, focusing on the experience of female survivors and in particular that of being raped has not yet been conducted. This article examines how trauma is made visible to the reader by exploring the characteristics of the ‘death experience’ and their mediated form, as offered by the three authors. This comparative study furthermore highlights the elements in the lives of survivors which influence their ability to move from a position of mere survival to that of embracing life after the genocide.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1777
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.8
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 113-130
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 113-130
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1777/1519
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1778
2021-11-27T08:05:18Z
tvl:ART
Karen Blixen in the African book and literary tourism market
Marais, Johann Lodewyk
book history
female writers
Karen Blixen
Kenya
literary tourism
In 1937, the Danish-born writer Karen Blixen published Out of Africa, an autobiographical account, in English, of the seventeen years she spent in Africa (from 1914 until 1931). During those years, she forged a permanent bond with Kenya, where she managed a coffee plantation. This bond was immortalised in the book, leading to cult status for both the publication and its author. Out of Africa contains a blend of the essay, the sketch and the historical document. A contemporary reading of the book also reveals some offensive and racist passages; footprints, as it were, of the settler society of its day. However, the lyrical, introspective quality of this book has resulted in its becoming one of the great publishing phenomena of the twentieth century, reaching many readers through various reprints, translations and a film version. This article presents the publishing history of Out of Africa and gives an overview of its many translations across the globe. It also indicates the extent to which, and the reasons why, the book did (or did not) achieve success in Africa. A comparison is also made between Out of Africa and a number of texts by other female writers who wrote about their experiences particularly in African landscapes and/or places.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1778
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.9
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 131-143
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 131-143
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1778/1520
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1779
2021-11-27T08:06:24Z
tvl:ART
‘A proper woman, in the African tradition’: The construction of gender and nationalism in Wangari Maathai’s autobiography Unbowed
Ebila, Florence
African tradition
gender and nationalism
patriarchy
women's autobiography
This article discusses how Wangari Maathai’s life experiences narrated in her autobiography Unbowed offers an opportunity for discussing the contradictions surrounding the perception, place and identity of women in African politics. Against the backdrop of gendered nationalism which glorifies the role and place of women in the construction of nations, the article presents a different reality of how some male leaders of postcolonial nation states like the Kenyan example, silences the voices of women politicians by urging them to behave like ‘proper women’. Maathai’s autobiography demonstrates that the social construction of womanhood in African politics is influenced by socio-cultural and patriarchal ideologies that construct the ideal African woman as the docile one, the one who does not question male authority. Maathai’s autobiography becomes a lens that can be used to view and question the social construction of womanhood versus manhood and the influence on gender power relations on women’s participation in the politics of the postcolonial nation states in Africa.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1779
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.10
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 144-154
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 144-154
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1779/1521
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1780
2021-11-27T08:07:37Z
tvl:ART
The development of exilic poetry in Anglophone West Africa
Oripeloye, Henri
alienation
Anglophone West Africa
exile
exilic poetry
migration
The nineteenth century was a period of migration that was perpetuated by the socio-political and economic instability in the continent; this caused the decline in the quality of life which had forced many people to go on exile. This study provides insights into the development of exilic poetry in Anglophone West Africa to show that exilic literature is not an accidental product; it grows out of the sordid social, political and economic realities in the sub-region. The contemporary development in exilic literary discourse in Anglophone West Africa indicates a radical shift in vision which is informed by the need to use this literature as a writing-back strategy. We have also discovered in this study that exilic literature in Anglophone West Africa has grown from the simple narration of personal feelings to become a radical ideology for re-ordering of human relations. Moreover, this study shows that there is a wide range of forms emerging from exilic literary experience in Anglophone West Africa in the explication of personal feelings, nostalgia, alienation, political and socio-cultural disruptions.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1780
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.11
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 155-167
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 155-167
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1780/1522
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1781
2021-11-27T08:08:49Z
tvl:ART
Redefining otherness: Writing fictional (auto)biography and centring female subjectivity in Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo's Children of the Eagle
Hunsu, Folasade
Adimora-Ezeigbo
female
fictional autobiography
otherness
subjectivity
This study seeks to examine how the Nigerian female writer Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo redefines otherness in Children of the Eagle by exploring the narrative elements of the sub-genre of fictional autobiography in centring female subjects. By foregrounding one of Regenia Gagnier’s descriptions of a subject—one that is “a subject to itself, an ‘I’, however difficult or even impossible it may be for others to understand this ‘I’ from its own viewpoint, within its own experience”—this paper argues that female subjectivity is a strategy that locates female characters as subjects, narrators, insiders and participants who share their experiences in the novel. It shows that the centrality of the female narrative voice(s) in determining the course and thematic focus of the novel enables female characters to demonstrate their otherness as a quality and position that makes them resilient, strong, and uncompromising promoters of women’s cause against debilitating patriarchal beliefs and systems. Being the speaking subjects also helps them to unpack the underlying trajectories in their development and depiction in the novel. This study concludes that Adimora-Ezeigbo’s adoption of this technique in Children of the Eagle strengthens the view that placing women as narrator-subjects enables the redefinition of otherness as a favourable concept capable of showing women as critical members of their societies and also a tool for African women writers’ to transform the literary scene.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1781
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.12
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 168-178
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 168-178
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1781/1523
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1783
2021-11-29T16:02:13Z
tvl:ART
Child and youth protagonists in Habila’s Measuring Time and Dangor’s Bitter Fruit
Akpome, Aghogho
children
youth
transition
Nigeria
South Africa
family
dystopia
Helon Habila’s Measuring Time and Achmat Dangor’s Bitter Fruit deploy child and youth protagonists to offer nuanced perspectives on contemporary nationhood in Nigeria and South Africa respectively, displacing the adult, and mostly male viewpoints that have dominated novelistic portrayals of postcolonial nationhood for decades. These protagonists are portrayed symbolically in the context of the biological family, which can be read in allegorical and metonymic ways to represent the nation as a social unit. This article explores the portrayal of these protagonists and their families for the ways in which they may reflect national anxieties in general, and the problems of recent socio-political transition in particular. It also highlights how the breakdown of the family, as well as the different pathways undertaken by characters may represent simultaneously dystopian and auspicious futures for Nigeria and South Africa.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2018-08-30
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1783
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i2.1783
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No. 2 (2018); 4-20
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No 2 (2018); 4-20
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1783/7094
West Africa; Southern Africa
Copyright (c) 2018 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1789
2023-02-10T13:23:06Z
tvl:ART
Dystopian future visions in Afrikaans novels published after 1999: A relationship between past and future
Barendse, Joan-Mari
Afrikaans literature
dystopia
post-apartheid literature
white male Afrikaans novel characters
Viljoen identifies an engagement with history and “dystopic views” as separate trends in recent Afrikaans literature. In investigating characteristics of recent Afrikaans dystopian futurist novels it becomes apparent that the past also plays an important role in the visions of the future that is created. The past is an important premise in dystopian literature in general. It can be linked to the protagonist’s search for identity and meaning in the dystopian space. This article explores the relationship between the past and future in Afrikaans dystopian futurist novels published after 1999. Specific reference is made to the following dystopian novels by established Afrikaans writers: Oemkontoe van die nasie (2001) by P. J. Haasbroek, Raka die roman (2005) by Koos Kombuis and Horrelpoot (2006) by Eben Venter. The self-published dystopian novels Die Nege kerse van Magriet (2006) by Barend P. J. Erasmus and Beslissing in die Karoo (2011) by Sebastiaan Biehl, which lie outside the mainstream of Afrikaans literature, are also discussed. These novels by Erasmus and Biehl are written from an extreme right-wing perspective and differ from the more mainstream novels in their portrayal of a future South Africa. In this paper I explore the role of references to South African history in the construction of the future in the Afrikaans dystopian novels published after 1999. I discuss how the Afrikaner characters use the past in their search for identity in a postcolonial and post-apartheid context.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1789
10.4314/tvl.v51i2.2
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 2 (2014); 18-27
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 2 (2014); 18-27
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1789/1526
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1790
2023-02-10T13:23:06Z
tvl:ART
Guilt, guns, girls and ghettos: Adjacent futures in selected post- apartheid fantasies
Brown, Molly
futures literatures
science fiction
South African English literature
youth literature
Since 1994, a growing number of South African writers of young adult and crossover fiction have experimented with science fiction and fantasy as tools for anticipating potential futures. In this article, three of these works are considered: The Slayer of Shadows by Elana Bregin, Zoo City by Lauren Beukes and The Mall Rats series consisting of Deadlands and Death of a Saint by Lily Herne. The texts are initially briefly contrasted with two texts by authors based in the USA: Lauren St John’s The White Giraffe and Sarah Pinsker’s “The Trans-dimensional Horsemaster Rabbis of Mpumalanga Province” to show that the three local writers’ engagement with the South African present enables them to resist, in varying degrees, prevalent Western tendencies to see positive African futures in terms of either an idealised pre-colonial past or as the result of redemptive agency by external forces. Although almost twenty years separate the Bregin novel from the others, there are clear similarities between them: each is written by a white woman (or women) and each places a young female protagonist within a crumbling, violent and resolutely urban environment. Paradoxically, the future worlds the authors create are at once both profoundly unfamiliar and recognisably South African, perhaps lending credence to Darko Suvin’s view that good fantasy gives rise to “cognitive estrangement” (4) by which the reader is freed to explore troubling issues such as guilt and complicity at a safe emotional remove. By foregrounding and contrasting the presentation of divisive contemporary themes such as gender, race, guilt and violence in these novels, it is hoped to establish whether the repressed fears/desires they articulate are in any way indicative of social attitudes to either present experience or imagined futures and whether such attitudes have changed significantly in the twenty years since the first democratic elections.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1790
10.4314/tvl.v51i2.3
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 2 (2014); 28-39
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 2 (2014); 28-39
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1790/1527
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1791
2023-02-10T13:23:06Z
tvl:ART
Visions of the future in the ‘new’ Swahili novel: Hope in desperation?
Visions of the future in the ‘new’ Swahili novel: Hope in desperation?
Gromov, Mikhail
Apocalyptic vision
East African writing
the ‘new’ novel
Swahili literature
The ‘new’ novel in Swahili, the most significant phenomenon in Swahili literature in the recent decades, has dealt with the questions of the future of the African continent and the world as one of its central themes. Kenyan and Tanzanian authors, whose novels are analysed in the article, present in their works a rather gloomy, apocalyptic-type visions of the future of humanity - but at the same time, leave the readers with hope that the catastrophic situations described in their books may be prevented or solved by joint effort of all the people of Africa joined into one nation.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1791
10.4314/tvl.v51i2.4
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 2 (2014); 40-51
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 2 (2014); 40-51
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1791/1528
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1792
2023-02-10T13:23:06Z
tvl:ART
South African end times: Conceiving an apocalyptic imaginary
Titlestad, Michael
catastrophism
dystopia
political theology
white fear
South African apocalypse
The future of South Africa has most commonly been conceived as a prospective apocalyptic upheaval in which the nation fractures along race lines. This expectation preceded, but informed the rise of apartheid, and has accompanied its demise. This article argues that catastrophic prediction — the trope of a looming racial Armageddon — is like a worn coin: familiar currency so often spent. Nonetheless, we need to conceive how this particular political theology settled into our polity; why it has proved so adaptable (through and despite the “miraculous” transformation of 1994); and, how its tenacity — which is politically anodyne at best and fascist at worst — might be challenged. The article conceives of a study (comprising nine essays) which sets out to analyze aspects of this history of fear, without simply taking its existence and persistence for granted.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1792
10.4314/tvl.v51i2.5
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 2 (2014); 52-70
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 2 (2014); 52-70
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1792/1529
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1793
2023-02-10T13:23:06Z
tvl:ART
Wole Soyinka’s dystopian/utopian vision in A Dance of the Forests
Azumurana, Solomon Omatsola
A Dance of the Forests
dystopia
Nigerian sociopolitical situation
utopia
Wole Soyinka
Although very few critics have ventured to analyze Wole Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forests owing to its apparent difficulty, yet those who have attempted simply see it as a metaphorical commentary of the sociopolitical situation in Nigeria. While their observations might be valid, taking into cognizance that the play was written in 1960 as part of the celebration of Nigeria’s independence, the problem with such readings is that it does not take into account the structure of the play in which Soyinka traces the past to the present to forecast a dystopian future. While a utopic past and a dystopic present is often enacted as a narrative gesture that concomitantly leads to a utopian future, the reverse is the case in this play. What Wole Soyinka depicts is a dystopian past as well as a dystopian present and future. Therefore, my proposition in this paper is that more than being a work of postindependence disillusionment, Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forests links the hopeless past with the fruitless present to project a bleak future. In this way, my point of departure in this essay is that while the writing of the play has been motivated by the betrayal of the common trust and hope as it relates to the Nigerian socio-political climate, the message of the play has a universal underpinning. In this respect, Soyinka insists that the atrocities that have so often characterized human interactions generally are unavoidable. Yet, by portraying the unavoidability of these human atrocities, Soyinka invariably quests for a futurity that is utopian. My conclusion, therefore, is that within the aesthetic trajectory of Soyinka, the boundary between dystopian and utopian visions is not clear-cut: they are one and the same.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1793
10.4314/tvl.v51i2.6
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 2 (2014); 71-81
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 2 (2014); 71-81
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1793/1530
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1794
2023-02-10T13:23:06Z
tvl:ART
Cultural nationalism in Mashingaidze Gomo's A Fine Madness
Makombe, Rodwell
anti-colonialism
anti-imperialism
cultural nationalism
neocolonialism
resistance
For many years, African countries have struggled to develop an ideological framework that suits the dynamics of the African context. From the writings of literary artists to those of political figures such as Kwame Nkrumah, the call has remained consistent: Africa needs to formulate its own path of development and disentangle from the tentacles of colonialism and neocolonialism. While négritude, as a cultural movement, was a direct response to the impact of Western civilisation on Africans in the aftermath of colonization, Gomo’s A Fine Madness may be read as a response to the West’s dominance in the neoliberal global order. It interrogates the relationship between Europe and Africa in light of persistent war and instability in Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Like négritude, Gomo’s work advocates the promotion of African ways of doing things politically, economically and culturally and shuns neocolonial relationships of exploitation. Adopting an anti-imperialist position, A Fine Madness holds the West responsible for fuelling conflict in some African countries for commercial gain. The article interrogates the concept of cultural nationalism as it has been appropriated in Gomo’s work. Focusing on selected poems, the article argues that A Fine Madness is a militant intervention in African politics, and a voice of resistance to the obtaining neoliberal global order.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2017-03-03
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1794
10.4314/tvl.v51i2.7
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 2 (2014); 82-93
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 2 (2014); 82-93
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1794/1531
Copyright (c) 2017 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1795
2023-02-10T13:23:06Z
tvl:ART
Constitution Hill: Memory, ideology and utopia
Ashcroft, Bill
Constitutional Hill (South Africa)
memory
ideology
utopia
The opening of the Constitutional Court on the 21st March 2004 in Johannesburg was an eventful national day, because, built on the site of the notorious Number 4 prison, the Court symbolized the intention to build a just future out of the memory of oppression. The incorporation of existing prison buildings and materials in the new court building reinforced the discourse of rebuilding and reconciliation that was to characterise the new nation state. As a text the building yields a broader and paradoxical meaning, for the utopian vision of a just future rests in a building in the service of state ideology. This is a paradox because ideology and utopia are regarded as opposites—ideology legitimates the present while utopia critiques it with a vision of a transformed future. However the building demonstrates a feature of ideology that Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch first revealed: that all ideology has a utopian element because without it, no “spiritual surplus, no idea of a better world would be possible.” This essay reads the building to show both the function of memory in visions of the future, and the function of utopia in ideology, while using Bloch’s theory to interpret the utopian function of the building.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1795
10.4314/tvl.v51i2.8
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 2 (2014); 94-113
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 2 (2014); 94-113
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1795/1532
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1800
2023-02-10T13:23:06Z
tvl:ART
‘Regardez la vie reprendre’: Futurity in Véronique Tadjo’s L’Ombre d’Imana / The Shadow of Imana
West-Pavlov, Russell
Rwanda
genocide
immunity
translation
life
futurity
In this essay, I review a series of binaries that are examined by Véronique Tadjo’s recent narrative about Rwanda and its 1994 genocide, L’Ombre d’Imana (Engl. trans. The Shadow of Imana, 2002), and doubly blurred. These binaries (inside/out, here/there, past/future) and envisaged from two points of view. They are situated first in the dreadful zones of biopolitical indistinction in which the law legalizes its own suspension and renders legal atrocities normally outside the realm of the permissible; and they are re-envisaged in a movement which “turns inside out” (Esposito) these indistinctions to assert an unbroken fabric of life, human or otherwise, which resists even the perversions of the extreme manifestation of biopolitics evinced by genocide. This article shifts its focus away from the customary topic of the relationship between genocide and representation, towards issue of genocide and biopolitics, and to a form of semiois that does not merely “mean”, but makes life (continue to) happen. Rwanda may stand, emblematically, for the stamping out of life on the continent, for the existential negativity that African often emblematizes in the global imaginary; by contrast, Tadjo, in her reading of Rwanda, poses to the African continent, not a rhetorical question but a fundamental ontological and existential enquiry: “Comment envisager le futur ici? Quel futur?” (Tadjo 125, “How can you envisage the future here? What future?”).
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1800
10.4314/tvl.v51i2.9
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 2 (2014); 114-129
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 2 (2014); 114-129
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1800/1533
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1801
2023-02-10T13:23:06Z
tvl:ART
‘Reterritorialising’ the land: Agaat and cartography
Fincham, Gail
Agaat (Marlene van Niekerk)
cartography
feminism
plaasroman
In this article, I look at the ways in which Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat re-orders the ideas of stewardship and land ownership in the South African plaasroman by invoking notions of cartography. I argue that cartography is particularly important for postcolonial theory because writers may project spaces other than, or position themselves in the spaces between, those endorsed by dominant cultures. This is particularly significant for feminism. I argue that the story of mapmaking is important both in Jakkie’s frame narrative and in the central narrative dominated by Milla de Wet and her servant Agaat. Together the female protagonists’ participation in mapmaking and their use of the alphabet chart through which Milla originally taught Agaat language enables them to escape phallogocentrism. This process of liberation climaxes in their joint involvement in Agaat’s embroidery. By embedding Milla’s and Agaat’s stories in the story of maps, van Niekerk brings about ‘a new relationship to the land, to other people and to the tradition of Afrikaans literature’ (Gerrit Olivier, "The Dertigers and the Plaasroman: Two Brief Perspectives on Afrikaans Literature").
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1801
10.4314/tvl.v51i2.10
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 2 (2014); 130-143
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 2 (2014); 130-143
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1801/1534
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1802
2023-02-10T13:23:06Z
tvl:ART
Woman for President? ‘Alternative’ future in the works of Kenyan women writers
Rinkanya, Alina
African female leadership
African literature
Kenyan women writers
utopian visions of the future
The article traces the emergence of ‘alternative’, positive vision of the future of African countries under the rule of female leaders in Kenyan women’s literature, using as examples three novels by Kenyan women writers—Rebecca Njau, Margaret Ogola and Monica Genya. The study comes to a conclusion that the aim of these authors was not to create another ‘trivial utopia’, but to draw a picture of a possible and accomplishable future which may serve as a motivation for the reading public.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1802
10.4314/tvl.v51i2.11
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 2 (2014); 144-155
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 2 (2014); 144-155
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1802/1535
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1803
2023-02-10T13:23:06Z
tvl:ART
Looking forward towards peace by remembering the past: Recycling war and lived histories in contemporary Mozambican art
Schwartzott, Amy
detritus as artwork
Mozambican art
recycling
Transforming Arms into Plowshares/Transformação de Armas em Enxadas (TAE)
Contemporary Mozambican artists who use detritus as media create artworks that chronicle their culture through bits and pieces of its discarded histories. By using culturally specific and symbolically charged recyclia, these artists create art that is quintessentially Mozambican, as the materials they use become potent signifiers of Mozambique. Contemporary artists’ use of recycling, in particular the recycling of weapons in the Transforming Arms into Plowshares/Transformação de Armas em Enxadas (TAE) project allows recycling to emerge as a paradigm in contemporary African art, and as a potent tool for cultural investigation. Utilizing recycling as a tool develops a broad, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary framework to investigate complex issues within divergent African and global societies. Artists in Mozambique who recycle are not only connected to cultural and artistic practices of the past, they continue these traditions within contemporary contexts. By creating artwork from cast-off materials, artists who utilize unwanted debris in Mozambique illustrate how recycling permeates all levels of society, including its broad expansion into art making, and how the use of reprocessed materials by artists both inspires and instills a sense of pride in artistic practices.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1803
10.4314/tvl.v51i2.12
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 2 (2014); 156-169
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 2 (2014); 156-169
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1803/1536
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1825
2021-11-27T08:09:56Z
tvl:ART
Art and healing: Ethical imperatives in Julien Kilanga Musinde's Jardin secret
L’art et la guérison—Des impératifs éthiques dans Jardin secret de Julien Kilanga Musinde
Mwepu, Patrick Kabeya
African intellectual
altruism
ethical imperatives
liberation war
non-violence
renaissance
This article sets out to analyse a trend in literary (re)positioning in the context of socio-political confrontation. In keeping with the literary approach adopted by Julien Kilanga Musinde in the novel Jardin secret (2010), the article will focus on defining the ultimate objective (s) of literary writing in a context where the novel genre is perceived as a depiction of the author’s worldview. Given the socio-political contradictions and widespread dehumanisation that characterise present-day Africa, it is important to note that Musinde’s novel is one of the answers to the political contradictions that impel postcolonial Africa into a situation of endless crisis. In this philosophical novel, the author endeavours to address the misuse of political power. He is equally at pains to decry the unethical use of scientific knowledge. Much as politics is at the core of the narrative, it is important to note that the political vein is nothing more than a pretext used by the author to broach deeper philosophical issues, which are expressed through ethical imperatives.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2015-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1825
10.4314/tvl.v52i1.34
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No. 1 (2015); 201-214
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 52 No 1 (2015); 201-214
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1825/1558
Copyright (c) 2015 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1826
2021-11-24T14:13:56Z
tvl:ART
Lawrence Hoba’s depiction of the post-2000 Zimbabwean land invasions in The Trek and Other Stories
Manase, Irikidzayi
dislocation
land question
Lawrenc Hoba
Zimbabwean literature
The article examines Lawrence Hoba’s The Trek and Other Stories (2009), which describes experiences from the post-2000 land invasions and fast-track land reform in Zimbabwe. It analyses selected short stories in relation to other Zimbabwean fictional works about land and the definition and restoration of dignified and other identities lost during Rhodesian colonialism. The article also discusses the significance of the narrative style, especially satire, and some of the themes, such as violence, dislocation, the position of women during the land reform and the multiple migration patterns in the land invasions, in an effort to foreground how all these link with Hoba’s cynicism and, at times, subversive perceptions on how the land issue has been handled in post2000 Zimbabwe. The argument here is that Hoba’s fictional writings about the post-2000 land invasions and fast track land redistribution programme are reflective of a marked departure from the pro-nationalist, ideological and backward looking fictional mappings of land and national belonging. These writings place the ‘now’ as critical in unpacking the ironies and contradictory impact of the land redistribution exercise on ordinary Zimbabweans.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1826
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.1
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 5-17
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 5-17
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1826/1559
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1839
2021-11-24T14:15:55Z
tvl:ART
Figures of pedagogy in Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes and Buchi Emecheta’s Double Yoke
Fubara, Angela M.
Ama Ata Aidoo
Buchi Emecheta
education
gyndandrist
self-assertion
woman empowerment
Writers and critics of women emancipation have lifted and advanced the struggle to another phase. The last decade has witnessed feminist writing from female disparagement, subjugation, women as victims craving to be fulfilled wives and mothers endowed with “pretty faces and fertile ova” (Chukwuma), to women striving for empowerment and assertion. A revisit of Buchi Emecheta’s Double Yoke and Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes reveals that these inimitable feminist writers, while depicting the women in the abyss of debasement in patriarchal society portray assertive heroines teaching by precepts immanent in pedagogical assets. Economic independence and education are added advantages to factors that make for self-assertion. Self-assertion, seen as a woman’s greatest weapon, serves as a pedagogical instrument for equipping both sexes. This article focuses on narrative strategies that evoke images that go beyond women disparagement and marginalisation to female empowerment and selfassertion through close rereadings of Emecheta’s and Aidoo’s novels.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1839
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.2
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 18-28
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 18-28
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1839/1568
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1840
2021-11-24T14:17:53Z
tvl:ART
“Why were we crucified into car mechanics?”: Masculine identity in Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat
Pretorius, Antoinette
Afrikaner nationalism
Agaat
masculinity
Marlene van Niekerk
Critical commentary on Jak de Wet in Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat centres on his being a patriarchal stereotype of Afrikaner nationalism. However, while his negative behaviour in the novel is undeniable, the construction of his masculine identity is mediated by the emasculated space in which he enacts it. This article reads his masculinity in relation to the concept of “hegemonic masculinity”, the spatial construction of public and private masculine identities, and masculinity as performative. This highlights the ways in which Jak’s representation reveals transient moments of insight. These moments find expression in the novel’s recurring images of mobility that culminate in his death.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1840
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.3
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 29-43
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 29-43
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1840/1569
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1841
2021-11-24T14:22:15Z
tvl:ART
Die boek van toeval en toeverlaat (Ingrid Winterbach): ’n Teosofieskabbalistiese perspektief
Spruyt, Marie
esoterica
Kabbalist
Theosophy
The Book of Happenstance
Ingrid Winterbach
The main character, Helena Verbloem, goes on a journey of discovery: to find her stolen shells, and to determine what role chance and contingency plays in man’s search for meaning and order. On both these journeys she is accompanied by her colleague Sof Benadé and to a certain extent her employer, Theo Verwey. Sof introduces her to a world of duality, where good and evil exist but where one has a choice, in spite of disappointments that characterize daily life. Verwey dies before she can really get to know him, but he leaves her with the knowledge of the nature of language, that it is as subject to contingency as everything else. By analysing the text from a theosophical and Kabbalistic viewpoint Helena’s journeys of discovery and self-discovery are revealed. It is shown that although she still believes that one’s life is not determined by a Higher Order but through small contingencies, she no longer needs to be obsessed with the many losses she suffered, including that of her treasured shells, or the intellectual struggle to understand the origin of life and the role of human cognition in the suffering of humankind. This helps her to heal her relationships with the living and the dead, and in the process also herself.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1841
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.4
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 44-56
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 44-56
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1841/1570
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1843
2021-11-24T14:23:57Z
tvl:ART
Post-apartheid transnationalism in black South African literature: a reality or a fallacy?
Rafapa, Lesibana
Black South African English literature
consciousness
identity
post-apartheid
transnationalism
The quest of this paper is to probe whether globalising post-nationalism impacts on post- apartheid black South African English literature in a manner that suggests a blurring of distinctive African identities. This is done against the background that black South African literature right from its written beginnings in the early 19th century has coalesced into a taxonomically distinct entity forming a non-negligible component of South African literature written in English. I first analyse two post-apartheid novels written by the black writers Niq Mhlongo (Dog Eat Dog, 2004) and Sindiwe Magona (Beauty’s Gift, 2008). Secondly, I consider three post-apartheid novels by the black writers Phaswane Mpe (Welcome to Our Hillbrow, 2001), Kgebetli Moele (Room 207, 2009) and Kopano Matlwa (Coconut, 2007). I approach an examination of the five post-apartheid novels by separating them into two categories, as a way of indicating that black South African literature of this era remains as stylistically varied as that of earlier periods, albeit broadly within a mould continuing to characterise it as black. In order to justify an underlying common allegiance to localised identity cutting across the two categories in which I place these five post-apartheid novels, evidence of such a pervasively black feature is explained inter-categorically, even as intra-categorical affinities are demonstrated. I trace these two levels of typology within the conceptual framework of two main groups of theorists. The first group consists of commentators such as Carrol Clarkson in her assertion that the identity of black Africans in the post-apartheid era as portrayed in the fiction of writers such as Phaswane Mpe is such that “educated and urbanised individuals should no longer identify” with and share beliefs having to do with African identity and “a common and accountable response to that which the community represents.” The attitude of these critics has led to Leon de Kock seeing both black and white post-apartheid literature warranting interpretation with a “sense of a post-national configuration—indeed, now a transnational constellation.” I demonstrate in this paper that post-apartheid fiction written by blacks not only defies theorists’ subordination of imaginative writers’ centrality in social discourse, but goes further specifically to chafe against normative characterisation as transnational. The second main category constituting the theoretical matrix within which I examine the discourses of the five selected novels includes theorists such as Rob Gaylard, in his observation that Es’kia Mphahlele “can be seen as the founder of a tradition of black writing that runs through writers like Miriam Tlali, Mtutuzeli Matshoba, Njabulo Ndebele and Zakes Mda to Phaswane Mpe,” with the thread splicing them together being a grounding of these authors’ writings in the philosophy or worldview of Afrikan Humanism.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1843
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.5
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 57-73
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 57-73
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1843/1571
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1847
2021-11-24T14:26:42Z
tvl:ART
Introduction: Orality and technauriture of African literatures
Merolla, Daniela
erosion
innovation
orality
technauriture
technology
African oral cultures as well as their oral literatures are vigorous. True, in some cases, elements of such literatures are at risk of disappearing when styles and texts are linked to specific languages and rituals that are no longer performed as they were in the past; in other cases, the very limited number of speakers has drawn local and global attention to endangered languages and the need for their revitalization Still, such a “sense of an ending” needs to be balanced by the observation that the large majority of the verbal arts and the cultural groups that produce them have, by and large, integrated oral and new ways of expression—from hip hop to various forms of theatre, world fusion music and digital orality. Changing oral genres and “technauriture” in African literatures are at the heart of the analyses and discussions presented in this number of Tydskrif vir Letterkunde. The included articles derive from the 9th Conference of ISOLA (International Society for the Oral Literatures of Africa) held at the University of Venda (South Africa) from June 28 to July 1, 2012.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1847
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.8
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 80-90
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 80-90
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1847/1574
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1848
2021-11-24T14:30:01Z
tvl:ART
Une Joute verbale traditionnelle de Côte d’Ivoire sur internet à l’aube des années 2000
Derive, Jean
cathartic alliance
code switching
cultural solidarity
diaspora
new media
oral contest (gate-gate)
This paper deals with a genre consisting in a traditional contest of conventional insults produced in Ivory Coast and called gategate (insulting is translated gâter le nom in local French). The gate-gate, born in an urban context of interethnic and interlinguistic hybridity, is performed in a variant of local popular French called Nouchi (a sort of pidgin, mixing French and main local languages: Agni-Baoulé, Bété, Dioula, Gouro …) and mainly used by young people. This genre appeared in the 1990s when the political perturbations began in Ivory Coast after the death of President Houphouet-Boigny. In the early 2000, it migrated to the web to be practiced by the Ivorian diaspora dispersed across the world. This study analyses how the web promotes the rules of the gate-gate in form and content, with the modalities of communication specific to this new media, as well as the evolution of this genre’s functions, which becomes a sign of cultural solidarity and complicity.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1848
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.9
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 91-101
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 91-101
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1848/1575
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1849
2022-08-03T07:28:59Z
tvl:ART
« Les rois de Ségou » : de l’épopée à la série télévisée
Tamari, Tal
adaptation of oral tradition
Boubacar Sidibé
Les Rois de Ségou
Malian television series
oral epic tradition
Les Rois de Ségou (“The Kings of Segu”) is a television series from Mali directed by Boubacar Sidibé, released to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Mali’s independence (22 September 1960). Together with another film released at about the same time, Samanyana Basi (“Basi from the village of Samanyana”), it is largely based on oral traditions pertaining to the Bamanadominated state of Segu (ca. 1700–1860). The film was originally shot in French; after a first showing, it was dubbed in Bamana due to popular demand. The director employed several strategies to best adapt this oral tradition to the screen: citations from the songs are preserved (in the original Bamana); the role of dialogue is reinforced in order to make up for the disappearance of the bard’s narrative voice; and the dialogues are laden with adages, thus approximating the characteristics of bardic speech. The music draws not only on that traditionally associated with the epic, but also on a full range of Bamana and non-Bamana, Malian traditional and contemporary music. Dramatic and acting styles are furthermore influenced by the traditional Bamana kòtèba theatre, as well as by the foreign (especially Latin American) television soap operas widely viewed in Mali. Though the subject is ostensibly the past, the social and political critique of contemporary Mali forms the implicit subtext. Inasmuch as Malians of all backgrounds have been highly interested by this series, it evidences that it fosters the emergence of a sense of national identity.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1849
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.10
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 102-117
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 102-117
2309-9070
0041-476X
fra
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1849/1576
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1850
2021-11-24T14:35:30Z
tvl:ART
Oral storytelling and national kinship: Reflections on the oral narrative performance in the Kenya Schools and Colleges Drama Festivals
Opondo, Rose A.
Kenya Schools and Colleges Drama Festivals
kinship
oral narrative performance
textual manipulation
The story, in the form of the oral narrative, has always been a communalizing genre in the traditional African setting. It then functioned as a tool that brings together not only the artist and the particular audience, but also the entire community within which the performances are derived and performed. However, postcolonial, modern and global situations have greatly impacted on the traditional kinship structures in Africa and kinship fostering tools like the African oral narrative have not been spared. The introduction of the oral storytelling onto the proscenium stage in the Kenya Schools and Colleges Drama Festivals (KSCDF) has contributed to perpetuate the performance of this genre to significant degrees. This move has not only recalled attention to oral narratives, but also has revolutionized the performance and functional aspects of oral storytelling. Various aspects of the oral narrative genre have changed, from the multi-ethnic audience to the elaborate narrative structures and the varying orientations of the oral artists in KSCDF. The dramatic elements of the narrative have also been enhanced to justify its inclusion within the wider dramatic genre. This article investigates the structural and thematic reorientations of the contemporary Kenyan oral narrative and how it influences the reorientations of kinship in a postcolonial reality characterized by heterogeneous consumer audience and the need for national commonality. The aim is to understand the reorientations of oral storytelling and its scripted machinations of multi-ethnicity woven into the narrative as part of its contemporarily requisite features; the question is whether or not these reorientations enable the ideological adoption of some form of kinship across the diverse ethnic groups in Kenya.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1850
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.11
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 118-131
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 118-131
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1850/1577
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1851
2021-11-24T14:36:25Z
tvl:ART
The media, the reconstruction of drumming, and the tradition of the dùndún and the bàtá ensemble of the Yorùbá in South Western Nigeria
Adenike, Idamoyibo Atinuke
diffusion
dùndún and bàtá ensemble
media documentation
traditional drumming
Yorùbá traditional music
This paper examines the impact of the technical media in the reconstruction of Yorùbá traditional drum music, for example given by the unification of two important ensemble instruments in Yorùbá society. It also calls to ‘revive’ the indigenous system of drumming beyond its traditional setting, making it an issue of global consumption. The preservation of the instrumental heritage of the Yorùbá people of South Western Nigeria needs to be discussed in its association with technical media. The Prodigal Ones by Mount Zion Films Production (and other drum music performance in films) shows the media enhancement of the performance of the ensemble serving as accompaniment during a traditional festival. The short scene allocated to a traditional festival reveals the significance of drumming and the input of the drum makers, who are generally not educated but are rich in ideas, knowledge and skills. Interviews show that the dùndún and bàtá ensemble today showcase a new image that is colourful. The wood for drum’s construction is now lighter than for the older ones.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1851
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.12
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 132-141
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 132-141
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1851/1578
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1852
2022-08-03T07:29:46Z
tvl:ART
Contes et identité: Wanto dans les contes gbaya et dans la communication actuelle
Roulon-Doko, Paulette
Central African Republic (CAR/RCA)
Gbaya identity
Gbaya oral tradition
oral tradition and new media
Wanto
the spider character
Gbaya tales portray gods, humans and animals living as human beings in villages, hunting, gathering and cultivating plants. Wanto, a spider, is the most recurrent character of these tales: he is the one who brings civilization to Gbaya people. My paper points out Wanto’s difference from the other characters and analyzes the complexity of his status. He is the only character whose name can be used as a name for a man. Most other names are specific to a tale, like Snow White in European tales, and cannot be attributed to people. For the Gbaya, Wanto epitomizes the essence of human beings. In fact, on the Internet, it appears that Wanto is always mentioned and claimed as the symbol of Gbaya identity by Gbaya artists. The fundamental role of Wanto in building Gbaya identity shows that oral literature is still vibrant and finds its place in new communication media.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1852
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.13
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 142-149
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 142-149
2309-9070
0041-476X
fra
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1852/1579
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1853
2021-11-24T14:51:31Z
tvl:ART
Kinship, collegiality and witchcraft: South African perceptions of sorcery and the occult aspects of contemporary academia
Wood, Felicity
corporatisation
kinship
magic
sorcery
universities
Certain South African perceptions of sorcery acquire new resonance when considered in the context of present-day corporatised, managerially governed higher education. Concepts of witchcraft from elsewhere in Africa further illuminate this. Indeed, there are certain striking metaphorical parallels between distinctive trends in the contemporary market-driven academic environment and various perceptions of witchcraft. These include the connections between kinship and witchcraft; also the belief that greed, jealousy and the selfish accumulation of material resources can be associated with sorcery. This conviction has certain points of comparison with the damaging effects of the impetus towards “individualism, competition and consumption” (Salim Vally) in higher education, stemming from broader trends in globalised corporate capitalism. Thus there are areas of commonality between certain African perceptions of sorcery and the corporatised academic environment.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1853
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.14
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 150-162
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 150-162
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1853/1580
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1871
2022-08-03T07:24:56Z
tvl:ART
« Paroles d’Afrique » Structuration d’un hypermedia—De la théorie à la pratique
Dauphin-Tinturier, Anne-Marie
hypermedia
standardization
« Paroles d’Afrique » (exhibition)
ethnographic exhibition
The ethnographic museum of Bordeaux (France) scheduled an exhibition « Paroles d’Afrique » (“Words from Africa”) from October 2012 to May 2013. The items for the exhibition, properly scanned and contextualized, were brought together on a hypermedia platform, so as to retain a record of the exhibition. The hypermedia material was distributed with the exhibition catalogue and published on the museum website. The author was in charge of the creating the hypermedia platform. This paper outlines the approach to structuring the text, and explains the difficulties and successes encountered during the collection of the material.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2014-04-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1871
10.4314/tvl.v51i1.15
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No. 1 (2014); 163-174
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 51 No 1 (2014); 163-174
2309-9070
0041-476X
fra
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1871/1598
Copyright (c) 2014 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1884
2023-09-21T08:50:02Z
tvl:ART
Abjection in Dambudzo Marechera's The House of Hunger
Wayne, Christopher
Grogan, Bridget
abjection
African literature
corporeality
postcolonialism
psychoanalysis
In a description of nationalist poems about “a golden age of black heroes; of myths and legends and sprites” (Marechera 74), the narrator of The House of Hunger (1978) observes that these themes are the “exposed veins dripping through the body of the poems.” In this article we extend this observation to argue that, metaphorically on display in Marechera’s novella itself, are the “exposed veins dripping through the body of the [text]” (74). The novella’s themes include colonialism, social destitution, violence, state-sanctioned oppression, identity struggles, poverty, dislocation, disillusionment and anger, all of which are appropriately imaged in Marechera’s visceral metaphor of the pain and violence implicit in the literary text. More specifically, corporeal imagery emphasises the unnamed narrator’s troubled existence, suffusing The House of Hunger in a manner that elicits disgust and horror, thus encouraging the reader’s affective response to the representation of the colonial condition. This article illuminates Marechera’s seeming obsession with corporeality by providing a postcolonial and psychoanalytic reading, focussing in particular on Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection. Although critics have objected to reading African texts through the lens of psychoanalysis, the article sets out to address this concern, noting the importance of theorists like Frantz Fanon and Joshua D. Esty in justifying psychoanalytic readings of African literature, and drawing resonant parallels between Kristevan theory and Marechera’s perspective on the colonial condition of Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) in the 1970s.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2018-08-30
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1884
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i2.1884
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No. 2 (2018); 104-119
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No 2 (2018); 104-119
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1884/7101
Southern Africa
Copyright (c) 2018 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1885
2021-11-29T16:02:13Z
tvl:ART
Belonging in Thuis and 7de Laan: a critical whiteness studies perspective
Marx Knoetze, Hannelie
Whiteness studies
community soap opera
Public Service Broadcasting (PSB)
Public Service Television
controlled case comparison
national identity
7de Laan
Thuis
Within the South African and Belgian contexts, Public Service Television remains a key role player in the dissemination of ideas around national identity. Moreover, whiteness manifests as one aspect of national identity in both contexts and remains (to differing degrees) a normative construction. This article presents the findings of a controlled case comparison of a sample from two community soap operas (7de Laan and Thuis, broadcast by the South African (SABC) and Flemish (VRT) Public Service Broadcasters respectively) from the perspective of Critical Whiteness Studies. What my analysis sought to investigate was how the politics of belonging play out in these PSB narratives and the possible implications this holds for local as well as global discourses of whiteness and power in Public Service Media. The analysis revealed three rhetorical devices which function to maintain whiteness as hegemonic ideology in both texts despite the fact that they originate in disparate contexts.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2018-08-30
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1885
10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i2.1885
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No. 2 (2018); 21-38
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 55 No 2 (2018); 21-38
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1885/7095
Southern Africa; Belgium
Copyright (c) 2018 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1888
2021-11-24T07:20:45Z
tvl:ART
Models in the construction of female identity in Nigerian postcolonial literature
Oloruntoba-Oju, Omotayo
Oloruntoba-Oju, Taiwo
African womanism
Akachi Ezeigbo
essentialism
gender binaries
motherhood
nego-feminism
sheroes
Gendered identity in Africa has for centuries been a hotbed of ideological and narrative contestations. While colonial constructions of the African female were generally essentialist and negative in character, early postcolonial African literature also ironically deployed essentialisms and rigid gender binaries to portray African womanhood, thus prompting a challenge of both by female African writers of the first generation. However, in a significant twist, second generation Nigerian women writers were to restore the related tropes of wifehood and motherhood to the front burner. This article examines the corresponding models of representation of gendered identity and the inherent, and complex, negotiation of gendered power relations over time in Nigerian postcolonial literature. These models, which we describe here as “essentialism entrenched”, “essentialism challenged” and “essentialism negotiated” are examined against the background of gender theory and African womanist discourse. The essay observes that the resurgence of motherhood, albeit in mediated/transformative forms in Nigerian women writing, underscores the continuing challenge of culture in the formation of African gendered identities and in relation to societal development. The work of Akachi Ezeigbo, a leading Nigerian female writer of the second generation, is used in the article to illustrate this resurgence and its interface with womanist theorizing.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2013-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1888
10.4314/tvl.v50i2.1
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No. 2 (2013); 5-18
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No 2 (2013); 5-18
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1888/1611
Copyright (c) 2013 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1889
2021-11-24T07:24:33Z
tvl:ART
The politics of rape: Traces of radical feminism in Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
Barnard, Lianne
Disgrace
J.M. Coetzee
prostitution
radical feminism
rape
Disgrace can be read as a deliberation on rape in all its complexity, articulating and commenting upon many of the positions typical of the radical feminism of the seventies. Some feminists classify prostitution as a form of rape. Prostitution is the ideal form of sex for the main character, David, because it allows him to fantasize that a woman mirrors his wishes. The border between rape and consensual sex is shown to be problematic in the relationship between David and his young student, Melanie. Although some readers find that Melanie was willingly seduced, others consider that she was raped. The charge of sexual harassment is therefore unsatisfactory for both sides and, since David refuses to read the charges brought against him, he effectively silences his accuser. When his daughter, Lucy, equates heterosexual sex with killing and hating women, one can read it as evoking the radical feminist idea that men as a class subordinate women as a class through the threat of rape. Lucy’s political lesbianism is a logical response to such misogyny. After being rape, Lucy accepts a subordinate position and this proves the power of rape in controlling women. Like one of the Sabine women, Lucy seems willing to sacrifice herself for peace between black and white in South Africa.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2013-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1889
10.4314/tvl.v50i2.2
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No. 2 (2013); 19-28
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No 2 (2013); 19-28
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1889/1612
Copyright (c) 2013 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1890
2021-11-24T07:25:35Z
tvl:ART
‘Van vandag af is jou naam Februarie!’ Naamgewing en naamstroping in tekste van Diana Ferrus, I. D. du Plessis en Rayda Jacob
Chaudhari, Shamiega
identity
marginality
namestripping
naming
This article examines naming as the core of identity and how the stripping of a name can lead to the loss of identity. In South African history the colonisation of the Cape Colony since 1652 is considered the start of forced labour and slavery. Although slavery had a major impact on South African history, limited slave narratives about their personal and life experiences are available. Their identity was hardly of interest to the colonists and it is therefore not surprising that the colonists were not concerned about the effects and consequences of name stripping on the marginalized slave. Naming is an ancient practice which deserves to be explored in its relation to identity. Naming and identity are inextricably linked. Richard D. Alford found that no single society exists which does not bestow personal names on its members. A personal name leads to individualisation and once it occurs naming enters the realm of identity. The effects of name stripping still surfaces centuries later with many descendents being unable to trace their family roots. Despite extended postcolonial research on various related fields, not much emphasis has been placed on naming and/or name stripping of personal names in South Africa. This article explores the cognition of naming and the consequences of name stripping in contemporary Afrikaans literary texts. It argues that by stripping individuals from their names, they are torn from their history, place and culture. It specifically highlights naming techniques such as pejorative, calendar, classical and biblical names used to dehumanise and disempower slaves. These techniques will be examined in texts from three literary genres, the novel, The Slave Book by Rayda Jacobs, short stories in Drie Wêrelde [“Three Worlds”] by I. D. du Plessis and the poem, “Ons komvandaan” (“My Ancestry”) by Diana Ferrus.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2013-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1890
10.4314/tvl.v50i2.3
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No. 2 (2013); 29-46
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No 2 (2013); 29-46
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1890/1613
Copyright (c) 2013 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1892
2021-11-24T08:08:25Z
tvl:ART
The displaced Male-Image in Kaine Agary's Yellow-Yellow
Chukwumah, Ignatius
Kaine Agary
male-image
Nigerian female writers
twenty-first century Nigerian novel
Yellow-Yellow
It has been commonly asserted that Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow (2006) presents a sordid account of the deprivation of the protagonist’s subsistence livelihood by oil despoilment. This assertion is made without much regard to the repressed and manifest anxieties and desires profoundly induced in the novel’s central character by a male who is present, onto whom the absent malefigure is displaced. This article, therefore, investigates the provocations, corollaries, and correlations of the displaced male-image through its absence and presence and examines how the various offshoots of this image, whether as a father, lover, friend, autocrat or deliverer, are posited by the work’s major characters. The manifestation of the varied shades of the male-image is vital for the destiny of the main character and a few others, accounting for their sexual behaviours, consequent torture and the work’s tragic form. Also closely examined, through the coalescing and the application of Freudian and Jungian theories, are the anxieties stimulated by the absence or presence of the male-image, how they come about, are made manifest in the Nigerian literary tradition and repressed at the same time. From here, works that display the repressed are analysed and aligned to Yellow-Yellow. Besides the main characters’ heeding of some kind of pleasure code, the super-structural image of the male person hangs, like an unseen shadow, over and above Yellow-Yellow’s major character, motivating her actions
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2013-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1892
10.4314/tvl.v50i2.4
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No. 2 (2013); 47-61
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No 2 (2013); 47-61
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1892/1614
Copyright (c) 2013 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1893
2021-11-24T08:09:39Z
tvl:ART
Soul-brother Eugène N. Marais: Some notes towards a re-edit of his works
Gray, Stephen
Afrikaans poetry
biography
drug abuse
editing etiquette
Eugène N. Marais
nature studies
The intention is to survey the current condition of the works of the South African Eugène Marais (1871–1936). This is with a view to alerting the general reader to certain inherited disorganisations which, in the light of professional scholarly and editing standards, need to be recognised and rectified. Marais’s output as a poet and short story writer, as well as the pioneer populariser of nature studies conducted particularly in the Transvaal Highveld after the Second Anglo-Boer War, in both official languages of his day (English and Afrikaans), have ensured him the status of a unique cultural icon. Yet the publishing opportunities open to him in his hand to mouth, haunted career, especially as a journalist, meant his contributions were assembled into book form haphazardly, or remained unrecuperated from often neglected periodicals of the mid-1890s to the mid1930s to which he contributed.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2013-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1893
10.4314/tvl.v50i2.5
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No. 2 (2013); 62-80
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No 2 (2013); 62-80
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1893/1615
Copyright (c) 2013 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1894
2021-11-24T08:11:05Z
tvl:ART
A personal text owned by its public— changing readings of Sarah Raal’s Met die Boere in die Veld
Drwal, Malgorzata
Anglo-Boer War
life writing
reader's response
paratext
Sarah Raal
What seems to be a typical feature of Boer women’s personal texts which refer to the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) is the militant rhetoric of protest against the British aggression. Met die Boere in die Veld (“With the Boers in the Veld”) by Sarah Raal is a perfect example of this trend. Yet, her case is unique, because she actually spent a part of the war in the veld, fighting side by side with her brothers, which definitely was not a traditional place for a woman during a military conflict. Her memoirs were published for the first time in the 1930s, reprinted a number of times, and re-issued in 2000 in two language editions— Afrikaans and English (significantly under a new title, The Lady who Fought). An additional introduction was added to both new editions, which suggests a new role of the heroine and a new meaning of her story. This paper discusses how Raal’s original foreword and the new introduction influence the reader’s response to the text. Additionally, attention is drawn to the role of other paratextual elements of the book and the matter of translation. Having taken into account political and gender discourses operating as a context for every reading, the text undergoes re-interpretations. Consequently, the book, once an anti-British Afrikaner nationalist propaganda story, turns into a popular adventure tale about a brave Boer girl, a story about an exceptional woman, a proto-feminist who transgresses the conventional gender roles, or into a universal pacifist protest. In the 2000 edition pacifist and feminist aspects come to the foreground, and this way the old story becomes a suitable read for the modern post-apartheid reader.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2013-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1894
10.4314/tvl.v50i2.6
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No. 2 (2013); 81-97
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No 2 (2013); 81-97
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1894/1616
Copyright (c) 2013 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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oai:journals.assaf.org.za:article/1895
2021-11-24T08:16:24Z
tvl:ART
Cultural conflict and shifting identities in Stephen Black’s The Dorp (1920)
Snyman, Salomé
Afrikaner nationalism
small-town novel
South African literature
Stephen Black
This article deals with journalist, dramatist and novelist Stephen Black’s The Dorp (1920), a novel which I regard as the earliest example of what I have named the small-town novel sub-genre of the South African English novel. Other early examples of the small-town novel are Willemsdorp by H.C. Bosman, The Mask by C.L. Leipoldt and Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton. Black satirizes the goings-on in a typical South African town called Unionstad. The name of the town reveals the novel’s threefold thematic impulse: an allegorical evocation of the Union Period (1910–48) in South Africa; an ironic-satirical thrust (the Union period was one of increasing political polarization and ultimately, an idealistic vision of cultural-political reconciliation. Unionstad, like the towns in the novels mentioned above, is portrayed as a microcosm of the national macrocosm. The Dorp reveals the ill effects of historical events such as the Boer War and the 1914 Rebellion, specifically the animosity that it created between English and Afrikaner townspeople. Black’s keen awareness and representation of how the political turmoil in the country impacts on the lives of ordinary people and how town culture reflects key aspects of a bigger problem, are the main strengths of the novel. Black’s vision for reconciliation is symbolized by the union in marriage of Anita van Ryn, the mayor’s daughter and Ned Oakley, the English shopkeeper’s son.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
2013-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
application/pdf
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1895
10.4314/tvl.v50i2.7
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No. 2 (2013); 98-110
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde; Vol. 50 No 2 (2013); 98-110
2309-9070
0041-476X
eng
https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/1895/1617
Copyright (c) 2013 Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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