Die representasie van slaafskap in 'Die kremetartekspedisie' deur Wilma Stockenström : die voorstelling van die onvoorstelbare

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:In this study the role played by literature or fiction in historiographyis investigated. Firstly, the problem of representing an objectivereality is outlined, and subsequently applied to the domain ofhistoriography by questioning terms such as objectivity, realityand truth. Due attention is given to changing perceptions aboutthe nature of history writing. It is indicated that historiographycannot render or recreate the past as something which is presenthere-and-now and, therefore, that history writing is of necessityalways an interpreted and subjectively construed representation ofan ephemeral reality.Against this background the thesis focuses on that part of SouthAfrican history (slavery) which for a variety of reasons lacks aformalised historiography. It is indicated how the gaps created bythe failures of formalised historiography can be filled by thesuggestive power of the literary imagination.Wilma Stockenstrëm's Die kremetartekspedisie (1981) is used toexemplify the above claims by specifically noting how the personalslave experience is described through the literary imagination inDie kremetartekspedisie.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University