TY - JOUR AU - Visagie, Andries PY - 2015/09/01 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Sinaps-opsporing tussen self en ander in Antjie Krog se Mede-wete (2014) JF - Tydskrif vir Letterkunde JA - Tydskr Letterkd VL - 52 IS - 2 SE - Review articles DO - 10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.52i2.6594 UR - https://letterkunde.africa/article/view/6594 SP - 225-234 AB - <p>The poetry volume<em> Mede-wete</em> by Antjie Krog is a sustained questioning of ethical relations between self and other, an on-going preoccupation of Krog in both her poetry and literary non-fiction works. This review article of <em>Mede-wete</em> (also available as <em>Synapse</em> in translation from Afrikaans into English by Karen Press) traces four forms of interconnectedness or synapses that shed light on Krog’s project to establish ethical connections between the self, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, both the human and non-human other. Love and family bonds, reaching out to the cultural other, a sense of shared materiality with the environment, and, consequently, a longing for mystical unity constitute four of the synapses as announced in the title of the volume of poetry. The strength of the often challenging poetry emanates strongly from the daring use of language that includes syllable disturbances and surprising compounds. In many respects, Krog’s impressive volume belies her apparent pessimism that Afrikaans poets and writers today are little more than “thighshifters-in-flinching-language” (<em>Synapse</em> 113). </p> ER -