Die verhouding tussen geskiedenis en literatuur in post-apartheid Suid-Afrika, met spesifieke verwysing na Verliesfontein deur Karel Schoeman en Op soek na Generaal Mannetjies Mentz deur Christoffel Coetzee

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines the relationship between history and literature, with specific referenceto the Afrikaans novels Verliesfontein (1998) by Karel Schoeman and Op soek na generaalMannetjies Mentz (1998) by Christoffel Coetzee. Both novels are framed against thebackground of the Anglo Boer War and both take a postmodern approach to that history,amongst other things.First, Chapter 2 reviews the historical background to the relationship between history andliterature through the ages (the classical era, and the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentiethcenturies), with a view to indicating how this tradition adheres to the postmodern spirit ofcontemporary times. Thereafter, Chapter 3 presents a theoretical investigation into thepostmodern view of historiography and historical fiction. Special reference is made toHutcheon's theory of historiographic metafiction as an important theoretical point ofdeparture in the discussion of historical fiction. Political and ideological meaning implicit inhistoriography is discussed. Chapter 4 explores the current trend in South Africa ofrereading and reappraising the past, of questioning traditional historiography in a postapartheidSouth African context (both in Afrikaans fiction and in historical writing). Therevisiting of the Anglo Boer War in contemporary South Africa and in Afrikaans fiction isinvestigated, and an attempt is made to establish the significance of its reappraisal.Against this background the two texts, Verliesfontein and Op soek na generaal ManntjiesMentz, are discussed in Chapter 5. The two novels amply illustrate the possibility forinteraction between history and literature, fact and fiction. How may these texts be read inview of postmodern theory? What lessons for present-day South Africans did Schoeman andCoetzee have in mind with their postmodern questioning of traditional historiography andtheir unconventional reconstruction of the past? Reappraising conventional accounts ofhistory and exploring personal histories as these texts do, Verliesfontein and Op soek nageneraal Mannetjies Mentz are part of the dominant discourse that is taking form in themulticultural society of a postapartheid South Africa today.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University