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Photo of Breyten Breytenbach: LitNet
- Introduction
It was Louise Viljoen in the academic journal Internationale Neerlandistiek who introduced the concept of “minor transnationalism” to the Dutch language area – and the conceptual difference between “lateral” and “vertical” transcultural movements (2014: 3-26). In doing so, she referred to the compilation of essays Minor transnationalism, edited by Françoise Lionnet and Shu-mei Shih (2005). Transculturalism between the Netherlands and South Africa has evidently been a subject of study for some time now. However, the differentiation between vertical and lateral movements had not been raised before in transnational research of the literary traffic occurring between Afrikaans and Dutch.
In her book Die mond vol vuur (2014), Viljoen deals with the poetry of the South African writer Breyten Breytenbach. The author devotes a few paragraphs to the anthology Die windvanger (2007), which, together with Die beginsel van stof (2011) and Katalekte (2012), forms a trilogy in the poetic body of Breytenbach. The poet himself explained that he did not conceive the three volumes as a trilogy. However, the design of the three books, the similar typography, the print of one of his paintings on the cover of each book of poetry, and also the themes and the style, have contributed to the perception of a poetic trilogy. Viljoen goes on to refer to other interfaces, including the use of paradox and references to political and social events, in the three volumes. She speaks of “hermetic poetry” or, using a term coined by Brian McHale, “erasure” and “erasure techniques”, in Breytenbach’s more recent poetry (2014: 276). Breytenbach used the same title De windvanger and Windcatcher for a bilingual Afrikaans-Dutch and a monolingual English anthology of his collected poetry. On closer inspection, it emerges that the Afrikaans edition Die windvanger (Human & Rousseau) is the title of an original volume of poetry, a separate, identifiable volume that occupies its own place in the work of the increasingly prolific writer Breytenbach. The Dutch and American editions, carrying the same title in translation (De windvanger and Windcatcher respectively), are anthologies compiled by the author, both of which cover his poetry output from his debut Die ysterkoei moet sweet up to Die windvanger.
From a transnational perspective, it is of relevance to devote a few reflections to these compilations bearing the same title: first, the separate book of poetry that exists in Afrikaans, and the two foreign-language poetry anthologies. Breytenbach Die windvanger is present in three language areas. Using the terminology of Lionnet and Shih in Minor transnationalism, and as corroborated by Louise Viljoen, one could refer to the English anthology as a tool which Breytenbach uses to present, and promote, his work in the English-language world domain in certain ways. Within this research perspective, the Dutch edition at Podium can also be seen as a way to offer his poems, translated into Dutch, to a Dutch-speaking audience.
Anthologies such as Windcatcher and De windvanger can be read comparatively with each other, and alongside the separate collections of poems published between 1964 and 2007, from which the writer made the selection. Comparing editions thus yields data that provides insights into a writer’s poetic development.
These two perspectives are important for this research essay. On the one hand, there is the literary-institutional aspect: the way in which a writer is present in a literary landscape; how writers, through anthologies from their work, for instance, create an image of their own authorship at a certain moment in time. On the other hand, there is the poetical aspect: when an author draws up an anthology of his own work, he makes choices. Poems may be omitted or rewritten, while others may be presented in new constellations. The variations say something about the writer’s strategies and the development of his poetic opinions. These research perspectives – the institutional and the poetic-aesthetic – complement each other, particularly from my viewpoint as researcher, who has the luxury of being able to pore over three separate collections of poems that bear the same title, two of which are anthologies circulating in foreign circuits, ie circuits other than that of the Afrikaans language area.
Research into contemporary transnational text and writer movements between Afrikaans and Dutch is in its infancy. This article constitutes a very modest start. As far as I could tell, the trilingual Windvanger phenomenon in Breytenbach’s work has yet received very little attention, and even less from a transnational and a text and edition comparative perspective. In this academic consideration, I present some preliminary observations and nothing more than a brief research proposal.
- Double perspective on a case study
For this case study, I make use of a double perspective, comparative in nature. First, I introduce the genre of the author’s edition or the self-anthology. Writers sometimes combine previously published work and make changes to older texts for new editions. The first comparative perspective here concerns the different editions of a literary work. Variant material provides insight into the development of a writer's poetics. I illustrate my point with a concrete example. The trilinguistic title, Die windvanger / Windcatcher / De windvanger by Breyten Breytenbach, is available in the language regions of Afrikaans, Dutch and English. The Afrikaans work, Die windvanger, is a publication of a separate kind – it is an original collection of poetry – in contrast to the American and Dutch editions, published by Harcourt Inc (Orlando, USA) and Podium (Amsterdam) respectively. In other words, with that same title (in translation), Breytenbach has created a collection of poetry for the English and Dutch/Flemish book markets which is different from the one for the South African market. Windcatcher and the Dutch De windvanger are, despite what the title suggests, not translations of the Afrikaans publication. I use the fact of these different publications as a starting point to present cultural and sociological thoughts on transnational movements of texts, and the distinction between vertical and lateral transcultural shifts in writer careers and text movements. From a comparative perspective, the present case offers, in addition to a print(edition)-comparative study in the linguistic sense (three editions for three language areas), also a geographical crossover of literature: from the Afrikaans language area to Dutch, and also to English. In brief, this essay contains two themes, one on rewritings and edition versions, and a second one on Breytenbach’s poetry and international career movements.
- Rewritings and edition versions
Let me start with a Dutch expression that sounds more negative than intended: opportunity makes the thief. Writers seize moments to present their published work in different ways for themselves and for the cultural community, or the general public, if you like. The phenomenon of authors’ editions or self-anthologies is widespread: poetry which was first presented in other publications gets edited, sometimes rewritten, or arranged in a different way with a view to creating a new print, or collection. Some authors are more proactive in this than others. In many cases, a comparative study of different prints of the same literary text shows many variations on the same theme, ranging from minor word variations to new or modified verses and poems. After all, the poet today is no longer the poet he or she was back then. Usually, a few years lapse between poetry published for the first time and a compilation or a collection. Over the course of time and the course of a writer’s development, his views on literature, language and reality undergo sometimes minimal and at other times spectacular changes. Poetic and aesthetic shifts in an oeuvre are evident in the compilation of alternative readings of literary texts. We cannot read the mind of a writer. Text material, and in this case alternative text material, is what provides the researcher with the tools to make statements about trends in a writer’s poetics, about the writing craft and about the ways in which an author presents his work in the public arena.
Given the relevance of such a textual approach, with due attention to the text’s history or text’s development, it is surprising that a comparative study of print versions in prose and poetry is not undertaken more often. Parallel readings of different versions of the same text yield information that grants insight into the author’s poetic ideas and aesthetic suppositions. Moreover, it is not just about changes in the text. Even the composition of compilations, and hence the compilation principles, the choice of motto and instructions, or the title of a novel or a poem, can change over the years.
For this contribution, I will confine myself to the genre of poetry. Writers utilise reshuffling or recycling techniques in the course of having their work reissued. They may pursue very different strategies, hold very different beliefs and use different procedures during the process of revising previously published poetry. For example, canonical Flemish writers Hugo Claus and Paul Snoek seized every opportunity – that is to say, the reissuing of a volume of poetry or the publication of an anthology – to make changes to their texts, sometimes adding poems to a volume, or deleting poems, adjusting the composition of poem series, etcetera. Claus would edit and rewrite poems, while Snoek would present poetry in new, theme-based constellations (De Strycker & T’Sjoen 2013). In international literature, there are countless examples of writers who use the event of recompilation of their poetry, and reissues, as an opportunity to rewrite their work. WH Auden, Charles Baudelaire, TS Eliot, Elisabeth Eybers, Lucebert, Ezra Pound, Rainer Maria Rilke – this is just a random selection – have all reintervened in poems being presented for a second or third time, in complete works or self-anthologies. In Afrikaans poetry, as far as I can tell, limited attention has been paid to the study of reissue versions within the oeuvres of writers. The collected poetry of Ina Rousseau and the different reprints of her poetry have been examined in great detail in a thesis submitted to the University of Stellenbosch (Kleyn 2012), and the prose of Etienne Leroux has been the subject of a doctoral dissertation. An issue of Stilet (2004) contains contributions by John Kannemeyer, who taught editing at Stellenbosch for a few years, and HP van Coller. I am, undoubtedly, overlooking a few case studies, but this kind of research into Afrikaans poetry seems fairly thin. I brought up the case of Elisabeth Eybers from a comparative literature point of view, and posted the following research question on the poetry weblog Versindaba:
A print-comparative study can be organised for Elisabeth Eybers and, without a doubt, for more South African writers. I am currently rereading three revised prints of Versamelde gedigte (1990, 1995 and 2004). At the back of the beautiful edition of 1995 which was published to mark Eybers’s 80th birthday, the writer gave the following account:
Hierdie versamelbundel bevat die gedigte wat ek tussen my sewentiende en agt-en-sewentigste jaar geskrywe het, met die volgende uitsonderings: veertig van die ses-en-veertig verse uit my eerste bundel wat in 1936 verskyn het en uiteraard uit onervare jeugwerk bestaan, ’n stuk of tien gedigte uit die drie daaropvolgende bundels, asook één vers uit die werk wat ontstaan het nà my landverhuising in 1961. Die afgekeurde verse lyk my by nader insien op namaak, in die laasgenoemde geval wél eg maar indiskreet. (1995: 653)
Although Eybers’s first anthology, Versamelde gedigte at Van Oorschot (Amsterdam 1957), contained only six poems from her first book of poems, the reason for this choice had already become obvious for the first time in a publisher’s note to Gedigte 1936-1958 (Tafelberg, Cape Town 1978): “By die samestelling van Gedigte 1936-1958 is in oorleg met die digteres besluit om net ses gedigte uit Belydenis in die skemering op te neem.” Eybers’s explanation is always included in subsequent reprints in the catalogues of Human & Rousseau, Tafelberg Publishers and Querido. […] This authorised quotation can be used as a basis for a text-comparative study of Eybers’s poetry.
This is not the time or place to delve into the details of her bibliography, but, given the stature of Eybers as a literary personage, it can be said that her poetry deserves our attention from a textual-comparative perspective.
- Compilation editions as a marker
The author’s edition, otherwise referred to as a self-anthology – the choice which the writer makes from his or her own collected work – is interesting from a perspective other than one that purely compares text. Besides text and composition versions (the text material), we can also turn our attention to the poetic-strategic principles that underlie the publication of a poetry compilation. Writers of renown and publishing houses with financial scope can, at some point, decide to offer a differentiable anthology of the existing poetry. It goes without saying that commercial and, therefore, mercantile considerations can motivate such publications. When poetry is reintroduced onto the market, an anthology can promote sales and, therefore, the writer’s institutional position and, hence, his or her public prominence. Many reasons of an economic, sociological or cultural nature – such as production subsidies or the financial support of a trust or foundation – may contribute to the decision to publish such collections. Strategic and poetic considerations, however, also play a role. The poet may wish to place a marker in his authorship or close a particular creative phase of his, or may envisage a shift in the material production, the language conceptions or the literary discourse or his poetical thinking. Even from this aesthetic and poetic perspective, numerous reasons may lie behind the decision to draft a compilation or issue a reprint of previously published literary texts.
- The transnational Breyten Breytenbach
These more literary-theoretical thoughts bring us to the case study of Breytenbach’s so-called self-anthologies, or self-organised poetry compilations, such as Windcatcher and De windvanger. This phenomenon and accompanying problematic, which I have been broaching in general terms, start to deepen and become more interesting when a writer of international renown, such as Breyten Breytenbach, decides to make a selection from already published poetry volumes, for various language areas and with funds of foreign-language literary publishing houses. Not only did the South African writer compile for the Dutch book market the Afrikaans anthology Lady one. 99 liefdesgedichten (Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 2000), which contains erotic poetry that was first presented in different, separately published collections of poetry; but also, in South Africa, there exist anthologies which Breytenbach had compiled from his own work: Die handvol vere, ysterkoei-blues. Versamelde gedigte 1964-1975 and Die ongedanste dans. Gevangenisgedigte 1975-1983. The year 2007 saw the publication of Breytenbach’s Die windvanger at Human & Rousseau (Pretoria/Kaapstad), Windcatcher at Harcourt Inc (Orlando, USA) and De windvanger at Podium (Amsterdam). The issue De windvanger is a bilingual Dutch-Afrikaans edition. Rumour has it that the Dutch edition is based on the American one. However, the translators added a note, explaining that they had based their Dutch translations on Afrikaans source text. For translation studies, this offers an interesting case
The author’s editions compiled by Breytenbach himself show a different text selection, a different text composition. The Afrikaans Die Windvanger, which received the Hertzogprys in 2008, is different from Windcatcher and De windvanger. A comparative reading of the English and Dutch editions reveals that the author, whether or not in consultation with the publisher, editor and translators (in the case of the Dutch edition), offers and, therefore, displays a selection of his work stretching from his debut poetry volume, Die ysterkoei moet sweet (1964), in a variety of ways. In other words, Breytenbach presents his De Windvanger / Windcatcher differently in different language areas (South Africa, the Low Countries and the USA). He applies different selection criteria and, in that way, constructs different images of his poetry, which amounts to presenting a multiple literary personality.
To try to verify the author’s intentions would be purely speculative. Neither is it my intention to present the results of a comparison of print editions, translations, literary systems and reception by critics. Whichever way, a reading from one of those four perspectives proves revealing.
- Some research issues
[1] The print-comparative reading of compilation editions in different languages grants insights into Breytenbach’s selection strategies. Die windvanger (Afrikaans edition) contains nine headings with 105 poems in total. These are the nine sections in Die windvanger:
1 daar is geen tyd [1]
2 fluit-fluit [23]
3 lappesait [10]
4 najaarsverse [7]
5 reispapier [8]
6 die hart se dinge [15]
7 akkediskak [9]
8 die windvangerlied [17]
9 opsystaan [15]
The division into sections in De windvanger and Windcatcher are identical:
De Windvanger
Gedichten 1964-2006
Dutch/Afrikaans
I IJzerkoeienblues/Ysterkoei-blues [32]
II De ongedanste dans / Die ongedanste dans [30]
III De meetsnoeren vielen mij in liefelijke driven / Die meetsnoere het vir my in lieflike plekke geval [30]
Dutch edition: translation of Afrikaans poems
[Hesselink, Vancrevel & Van Dis]
Windcatcher – American edition: English source texts by Breytenbach. According to the colophon in Die windvanger, all but a few poems were first published in that edition. Die windvanger is not an anthology with reprints, but an original work of poetry, which, according to the back cover of Katalekte, became part of a trilogy consisting of Die windvanger (2007), Die beginsel van stof (2011) and Katalekte (2012). In her overview, Die mond vol vuur, Louise Viljoen highlights the significance of the typical Breytenbachian title:
Die poging om ’n poësie van die niet te skryf, is reeds aanwesig in die titel van Die windvanger. Die titel suggereer dat die digter ’n windvanger is, iemand wat die onmoontlike probeer regkry deur die wind (die niks) te vang (vergelyk ook die afdelingtitel “die windvangerlied”, WV 123). (Viljoen 2014: 284)
The bilingual Dutch-Afrikaans edition with the same title, De windvanger, comprises three headings, with titles referring to Breytenbach’s anthologies Ysterkoei-blues and Die ongedanste dans, completed with the third heading “Die meetsnoere het vir my in lieflike plekke geval. Gedigte van buite 1983-2006”, and contains a total of 92 poems in a parallel translation. The question is, then, what choices were made, and how did these textual changes result in a new book of poetry – despite the book containing older, published material?
[2] From a translational perspective, it is possible to examine the extent to which Breytenbach wrote his parallel versions either in Afrikaans or in English. We are here talking about the process of translation by the author himself, just as was done by André Brink in the case of his novels. For Breytenbach, the poems in Afrikaans and English are all “originals”. Interesting questions that present from a research perspective are whether the texts in both languages show semantic, structural, rhythmic and other differences; and, what was the input of the Dutch translators Adriaan van Dis, Krijn Peter Hesselink and Laurens Vancrevel? The last wrote a predominantly biographical afterword in the Dutch edition under the pseudonym of Laurens van Krevelen. This interpretation has undoubtedly determined the critical reception and presentation of Breytenbach in the Netherlands since 2007. Breytenbach’s poems in Afrikaans, English and Dutch are different texts, originals and translations, and can be studied from a comparative angle.
[3] From a literary-institutional perspective, it is very much relevant to examine the position of Die windvanger, Windcatcher and De windvanger in the circuits of Afrikaans, Anglo-American and Dutch literature. How does Breytenbach position himself in different language areas; what positions or kinds of exposure does he occupy in American, Dutch and Afrikaans literary publishing lists? Based on which contacts or networks does cooperation with those publishers come about? In terms of literary-social activity, one can, for example, state that, until recently, the author has taught creative writing at the University of New York City. Ever since the 1970s, a close link has existed between Breytenbach and the Dutch language area, where he puts in regular appearances. This anecdotal information can be factored into a literary-sociological approach.
[4] Finally, our present case study can also be regarded from the point of view of critical reception. How have the various author editions, or self-anthologies, of the poet Breytenbach been received in the USA, in the Low Countries and in the Afrikaans literary systems? I’m referring to Windcatcher (USA), De windvanger (Netherlands) and ’n Handvol vere, Ysterkoei-blues and Die ongedanste dans (South Africa). How is the distribution of the editions organised, what promotional campaigns are set up and what is the reaction of professional critics, journalists and academics to the anthology? Are there varying reader expectations according to language area, are different expectations created and how does the author come across on continents other than his own? To what extent do Breytenbach and the publishers steer the reception with author interviews, public appearances or cultural networks? These are very relevant research questions which I will not continue to discuss here.
- Transnational literary movements
For the last part of the paper, concerning transnational dynamics of writers and texts, I am using the edition of Die windvanger authorised by Breytenbach in South Africa and, later on, the anthologies in the USA and the Netherlands with the same title. They are the starting point for more general reflections on transnational movements in the authorship of this internationally renowned author. I will formulate the research issue and shortly present the theoretical context for further examination.
The following observation is not meant as rigid opinion, but wants to present an open door: writers and texts circulate and function not only in the landscape where the literary work was produced, distributed and initially received. Indeed, in many cases, they exceed the boundaries of their own language area or the national circuit to which their literature belongs. This occurs by means of translations, performances at international festivals, interviews in foreign-language media, intercultural networks, and reception texts and critical repertoires of foreign-language writers and literary critics. Comparative cultural-sociological research into literary dialogue that transcends national boundaries and language areas, and, thus, research into international routes of writers and texts, is studied under the general cultural-sociological header of transculturalism or transnationalism. Many cited studies of Pascale Casanova (1999), David Damrosch (2003) and Jahan Ramazani (2009) are based on a broad concept of internationalism, and even refer to “supra-nationalism” and “transnational poetics”.
The broad-based concept of “transnationalism” to describe the process of globalisation, however, is not always adequate as an instrument, since it functions in a too general way for describing specific writer careers and specific text movements from a global perspective. Careers and text movements take different courses as they cross borders and pass into different language areas. A more solid grid to work with is the concept of “minor transnationalism”, as coined by Françoise Lionnet and Shu-mei Shih. According to Louise Viljoen, and in line with the premises in the introduction of the book Minor transnationalism (2005), we can, where Dutch and English are concerned, distinguish vertical and lateral movements as concern contemporary Afrikaans literature. In an earlier quoted contribution in Internationale Neerlandistiek, Viljoen describes the transnational shifts in the work of canonical Afrikaans writers, such as Breyten Breytenbach, André Brink, Etienne van Heerden, Antjie Krog and Marlene van Niekerk, towards the Dutch language area and, by extension, into the European literary space.
There is, of course, not always, or only, a movement from a particular language area in the direction of the metropolis of world literature. The lingua franca of world literature today is English. The heart of the world literature nowadays is Anglo-American. For the contemporary writer, access to the British and American book market is nothing less than a conditio sine qua non for an international reputation. This vertical development from a smaller language area to the epicentre means that a work originally established in a small or medium sized language and in a rather peripheral cultural context passes, by means of translation into English or publication with an English-speaking publishing house, into what Pascale Casanova, French sociologist of culture, refers to as (in line with Goethe’s concept of “Weltliteratur”) the “République mondiale des lettres” (1999). But, there is more. There are also lateral movements from a smaller literary system towards other languages – towards other relatively small or medium sized language areas – at play. Lionnet and Shih sum it up as follows: “We realised […] that our battles are always framed vertically, and we forget to look sideways to lateral networks that are not readily apparent.” A vertical movement is, according to Louise Viljoen, a shift from (considered globally) a marginal literature to the centre of the world – from Afrikaans or Dutch to the English language area. A lateral movement takes place “tussen ’n marginale letterkunde en ’n letterkunde wat deel vorm van die Europese sentrum, maar nie noodwendig ’n sentrale rol daarin beklee nie” (Viljoen 2014: 6). In the latter case, these are movements between the “marginal language” of Afrikaans and Dutch, which, from a European perspective, is a medium sized language. Dutch is used by 23 million mother tongue speakers and is, as such, smaller than German, English, French and Spanish, but larger than the Scandinavian languages and some romance languages. Dutch clearly does not belong to “die magtige metropolitaanse sentrums van die wêreld” (Viljoen 2014: 5), as was the case in the Golden Era of the seventeenth century. In fact, in some cases, the literary space in the Netherlands is a crucial transit zone to other European literatures, such as, for example, German and French literature (eg Antjie Krog, Charl-Pierre Naudé and Breyten Breytenbach). Dominique Botha’s debut, False river, has been translated from the simultaneous Afrikaans debut, Valsrivier (2013), into French. The same translator, Georges Lory, was involved in the French anthology La femme dans le soleil (2015), which featured poems by Breytenbach.
In conclusion, I want to return to my contextual approach of Breytenbach’s multilingual compilation editions. Breyten Breytenbach’s literary work is, in many cases, not always simultaneously available in Afrikaans and English. As already stated, he refers to his texts in both languages as “originals”. In addition, Breytenbach’s poetry, prose and essays are available in Dutch translation. By submitting De windvanger to the American publishing house Harcourt first, and then offering it in Dutch, two movements can be distinguished: a lateral movement towards the Netherlands and Belgium, and a vertical movement into the English sphere. Reception study would be able to illustrate different readings of Breytenbach’s poetry in South Africa, Europe and the USA.
- Conclusion
An overview of Afrikaans literature, like any history of literature, requires a supra-national or transnational perspective. Such a study does not exist, and neither, for that matter, does it exist for Dutch literature. We do not even have a Belgian history of literature (with Dutch and French literature in Belgium), let alone an appraisal of Dutch literature’s place in the European context. Cultural transfers between foreign-language poetry systems at home and abroad, through external translation or self-translation or otherwise, are inherent to the dynamics of the literary landscape. It is, nevertheless, enriching for a history of literature to highlight the transcultural movements of texts and writers. The literary “cross-border traffic” between Afrikaans and Dutch in terms of poetry is the precept of a new book (forthcoming in 2016) of mine. In Die suiderkruis bo ’n berg – the title has been taken from a poem by Breytenbach – I examine the presence of South African authors in Dutch literature. Both writers and writer-compilers (such as Komrij, Kopland, Kouwenaar, Lucebert and Ten Berge), as well as institutions (the periodical magazine Raster, for instance), have contributed to the transmission of literature between Afrikaans and Dutch. I also survey cultural mediators, such as translators and publishing houses. I analyse the transnational movements in the writing careers of Charl-Pierre Naudé and Gert Vlok Nel; the historically earlier publications of Sheila Cussons and Ingrid Jonker; Ronelda Kamfer, Antjie Krog and Wilma Stockenström in Dutch; and the presence of Dutch poets in Afrikaans. The case of Breytenbach is especially noteworthy because his poetry circulates and functions in Afrikaans, Dutch and English – in South Africa, the Low Countries and the United States – but also in France, Germany and some other European countries. From a transnational point of view, it is interesting to undertake a reception-study of Breytenbach in those different language areas. A study involving different and complementary research questions surrounding Breytenbach’s compilations De windvanger and Windcatcher (and the separate Afrikaans volume, Die windvanger), to start with, is of high interest from a comparative, transnational point of view – and, thus, from the perspective of what can be called a distant reading. Research on the constitution of foreign images of a canonical Afrikaans poet can start right here.
Bibliography
Breyten Breytenbach, De windvanger. Gedichten 1964-2006. Krijn Peter Hesselink, Laurens Vancrevel en Adriaan van Dis (vertaling). Amsterdam: Podium 2007.
Breyten Breytenbach, Die beginsel van stof. Kaapstad/Pretoria: Human & Rousseau 2011.
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Shané Kleyn, Variante in die poësie van Ina Rousseau. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University 2012 [unpublished].
Many thanks to the Department Vertalen, Tolken en Communicatie (Ghent University) and Charl-Pierre Naudé, who reviewed my translation.
Yves T’Sjoen (Ghent University / Stellenbosch University)
The post Vertical and lateral literary movements in a writer’s career. Breyten Breytenbach’s <em>Windcatcher</em> in the USA and the Low Countries appeared first on LitNet.
Die eerste spreker, Rosemarie Buikema, professor van Kunst, Cultuur en Diversiteit aan Universiteit Utrecht, asook wetenskaplike direkteur van die Graduate Gender Programme, lewer ’n belangwekkende referaat oor eienaarskap van die publieke domein getiteld “Who owns the public space?”. Sy verwys na die studenteveldtogte “Rhodes Must Fall” en “Fees Must Fall” se pogings om Suid-Afrikaanse universiteite te dekolonialiseer. Een van die mees ekstreme voorbeelde van “dekolonialisering” was verlede jaar se brandstigting by die Regsfakulteit se biblioteek op die KwaZulu-Natal-universiteitskampus, waartydens waardevolle en onvervangbare boeke deur die vlamme verwoes is. Buikema voer aan dat een van die beweegredes vir hierdie aksie gebaseer is op ’n groep studente se spesifieke interpretasie van sekere stellings uit Franz Fanon se The wretched of the earth (1961): dat ’n nuwe wêreld uit die as van ’n oue kan ontstaan. Dit blyk dat die studente Fanon se uitings letterlik verstaan het, aangesien daar later ook geboue en monumente verbrand en beskadig is. Tydens die chaos van die studente-optogte nooi die Universiteit van Kaapstad Achille Mbembe uit om die studente toe te spreek. Buikema ontleed Mbembe se toespraak, “The de-colonization of the university and the question of the archive” op noukeurige wyse en jukstaponeer sy dinkproses met beelde wat deur Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaars vervaardig is in reaksie op dieselfde vraagstuk: Hoe hanteer mens ’n nalatenskap van sosiale uitsluiting? Daar word spesifiek verwys na die kuns van Wim Botha en Sethembile Msezane as eksperimentele wyses van “rerooting” en “recentring” van die geskiedenis. Buikema glo dat die geesteswetenskappe ’n plig het teenoor die samelewing: “I firmly believe that one of the primary responsibilities of the humanities is to respond to effects caused by experiences of injustice, exclusion, and neglect.”
Die volgende spreker was Carrol Clarkson, hoogleraar van Engelstalige Moderne Letterkunde aan die UvA en voormalige professor en departementshoof van Engelse letterkunde aan die Universiteit van Kaapstad. Met ’n insiggewende praatjie oor subjektiwiteit en die wet, getiteld “Redrawing the lines”, kyk sy na onder meer die rol van estetika in sosiale geregtigheid. Haar huidige navorsing bou voort op haar belangwekkende boek Drawing the line: Towards an aesthetic of transitional justice (2013). Haar belangstelling in die politieke oorgang in Suid-Afrika lê veral by die waarde van die subjektiewe betrokkenheid van die kunste wat aangewend kan word om op nuutgevonde wyse oor ’n meer regverdige samelewing te dink. Met ’n wye verwysingsraamwerk van vooraanstaande Suid-Afrikaanse skrywers, kunstenaars en regsteoretici ontwikkel Clarkson ’n teorie oor hoe die materiële uitdrukkings van subjektiewe toewyding verstaan kan word om by te dra tot, eerder as om afbreuk te doen aan, die proses wat tot ’n regverdiger samelewing kan lei:
Good Hope. South Africa and the Netherlands from 1600
Donderdag 18 januari 2018, 19.30 uur, Film 
Juliana. Een vorstin in een mannenwereld
