A History of South African Literature: Afrikaans Literature Part two: The Period of Emancipation
- Koch J
- ISBN: 9780627039287
- eISBN: N/A
- ePub ISBN: 9780627039294
- 528 Pages | Published: 2022
Koch’s A
History of South African Literature: Afrikaans Literature, Part 2 is an
extensive and thorough study of the development of Afrikaans literature during
the first three decades of the 20th century. It follows Part 1, in which the
earlier origins of Afrikaans and Afrikaans literature as well as the local
Dutch writings tradition were discussed. Koch uses the metaphor of mapping to
describe the work of the historiographer, and it becomes clear that his study
analyses the literary texts within the context of space and time. Accordingly,
it includes information on the authors’ lives and times as well as the
developments in Afrikaans literature, criticism and literary historiography.
The exposition
starts with the origin and development of the Afrikaans language during the
so-called ‘Second Language Movement’. Koch also describes the polemics between
historians emphasising the ‘spontaneous development’ of Afrikaans from Dutch
and those regarding it as a creole language; his balanced conclusion is that
neither of the two groups can lay absolute claim to the truth.
The interest of
the book is heightened by the inclusion of texts written in Dutch, as Koch
discussed in Part 1, and also works which are not ‘literary’ in the strict
sense of the word, like war diaries. These are discussed not primarily for
their literary value but for the insights they provide into the effect of the
Anglo-Boer War on the formation of Afrikaner identity. It confirms that this
literary history does not isolate the development of Afrikaans literature from
the development of Afrikaner ideology and identity.
Jerzy Koch is professor in
the Department of Dutch and South African Studies, Faculty of English, at the
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, research fellow at the Free State
University, Bloemfontein, and extraordinary professor at Stellenbosch
University. He is an acclaimed translator of Dutch and Afrikaans literature
into Polish and has published widely on Dutch and post-colonial literature.
PART ONE
THE SPACE OF SOUTH AFRICAN
LITERATURE
I.1. The Concept of The History of South African Literature
I.2. South African Space and
Mapping the History of Literature
I.3. Redrawing the Map
I.4. Temporal Clarifications
I.5. The Theory of the Accelerated
Development of Literature
I.6. The Linguistic Perspective
(Afrikaans vs. Dutch vs. English)
I.6.1. The Cultural, Economic, and
Racial Context of the Linguistic Situation in the Early 20th Century
I.6.2. Language in Education and
Free Christian National Education
I.6.3. Language in Education and
Fee Christian National Education
I.6.4. The Anglicization Campaign
and the Dutch Reaction (Simplified Dutch Spelling)
I.6.5. The Emancipation of
Afrikaans. Dutch vs. Afrikaans
PART TWO
THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
OF AFRIKAANS
II.1. Introduction
II.2. Preliminary Remarks
II.3. Travellers’ Observations and
First Pre-scientific Opinions on Afrikaans
II.4. The Origin of Afrikaans:
Academic Discussions and Polemics
II.5. Theories: A Typology
II.6. Conclusions
PART THREE
BETWEEN EXEGESIS AND
ECSTASY, OR THE LITERARY WORK AND ITS EVALUATION: WAYS OF APPROACHING THE
HISTORICAL LITERARY PROCESS IN AFRIKAANS LITERATURE
III.1. Literary Criticism and Literary Historiography in Afrikaans:
An Introduction
III.2. Gerrit Dekker
III.3. P.J. Nienaber
III.4. P.C. Schoonees
III.5. F.E.J. Malherbe
III.6. Rob Antonissen
III.7. J.C. Kannemeyer
PART
FOUR
MEMORY, HISTORY, MYTHS
IV.1. Diaristic Writings from the Years 1899–1902 and Memorialistic
Literature of the Anglo-Boer War
IV.2. Farmer, Legislator,
General, and Hero – Christiaan Rudolph de Wet
IV.3. The Memoirs of a Rebel: Japie
Neser
IV.4. “I am here in the best school
in the world”: A Poet in a War. The Case of Jan F.E. Celliers
IV.5. “War is terrible!”: The
Battlefield Diary of Totius (J.D. du Toit)
PART FIVE
THE FIRST POST-WAR GENERATION
V.1. The First-Generation Poets: The Two, Triumvirate, the Big Four
or the Big Five? On the Literary Generation in Afrikaans Literature (I)
V.2. “This is our life
expressed in our language” or Jan F.E. Celliers
V.3. Calvin’s Faith and Afrikaner’s
Faith – the Work of Totius (Jacob Daniel du Toit)
V.4. Louis Leipoldt: The Apostle of
the Opposite View
PART SIX
THE WRITERS OF THE 1920s
VI.1. The Poets of the Second Generation, Twintigers or Perhaps
Just Poetae Africani Minores? On the Literary Generation in Afrikaans
Literature (II)
VI.2. About the Man Who “had
no Quarrel with the Universe” – C.J. Langenhoven and His Emancipatory Work for
Afrikaans
VI.3. A Troubadour and His Rose or
Medieval and Renaissance Traditions in Afrikaans. The Paradoxes of A.G.
Visser’s Work
VI.4. Toon van den Heever: A Breach
in Afrikaner Aesthetics and IdeologyVI.5.
Eugène N. Marais – The Man, His Story and His Legend
Important Dates in the History of South
Africa from the Anglo-Boer War to the 1930s
Summary
Selected Bibliography of Books
Index of Names
“This book
makes a substantial contribution to South African Literature.”
Prof.
Craig MacKenzie, formerly professor of English at the University of
Johannesburg
“Koch
is an erudite scholar. The discussions of the works of the authors are full of
insight, and the descriptions of their lives are often quite moving. I
especially appreciated the author’s empathy with these older writers, who often
harboured ideas which are not acceptable anymore – there are no easy
condemnations from a later perspective. The manuscript is also written in a
fluent, readable style.”
Prof.
Chris van der Merwe, University of Cape Town
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