Henk van Woerden se Een mond vol glas en die skep van 'n kultureel meerstemmige Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The aim of this study is to investigate Henk: van Woerden's Een mond vol glas (1998) (AMouthful of glass (2000) translated by Dan Jacobson) as a contribution to the creation ofa multi-voiced South African history. Een mond vol glas clearly contributes to such aproject, because it recognises the histories of the Dutch immigrants, die Cape Muslimsand especially the Cape Coloured community through the figure of DemitriosTsafendas, better known as the murderer of Hendrik Verwoerd. The key concepts in thisstudy are cultural diversity and a processing of the trauma caused by apartheid.Postcolonial theory will be used to explain cultural diversity as the result of transferenceand to contextualize the growing interest in the transnational histories of migrants inliterature. Een mond vol glas cannot easily be described according to one specific genreor classification. This study will make use of the description literature produced in acontext of cultural diversity to show the problematic nature of two classifications of Eenmond vol glas that is currently being used. Processing the trauma caused by apartheid inliterature, comes down to a resistance to the isolating force of trauma. This study usesthe trauma theory of Judith Herman which states that the healing process or theprocessing of traumatic experiences can only take place in the sharing of people's storiesin the connectedness with others. In South Africa this process begins to take place in asociety where cultural multi-voicedness has become possible. In the end I will concludethat Een mond vol glas proves to be a reconstruction of history that is multi-voiced,making this part of South African history accessible for a larger audience.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University