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Die tyd van die triekster: identiteit in enkele hedendaagse Afrikaanse prosatekste
Literator | Vol 29, No 3 | a126 |
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/lit.v29i3.126
| © 2008 P. John
| This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 25 July 2008 | Published: 25 July 2008
Submitted: 25 July 2008 | Published: 25 July 2008
About the author(s)
P. John, Skool vir Tale, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South AfricaFull Text:
PDF (148KB)Abstract
The time of the trickster: identity in selected contemporary Afrikaans prose texts
This article focuses on the various ways in which “identity” figures in Afrikaans novels from 1996 to 2006, particularly with reference to the way in which diasporic displacement and death can be connected to the problem of identity. The various options that are identified in the texts are connected by means of the structuralist idea that meaning is produced as “a system of differences with no positive terms”. The figure of the trickster, as it appears in one novel from this time, namely “Niggie” by Ingrid Winterbach, is used as heuristic framework for the study, and as a provisional way understanding the production of the variety of identity options in the novels.
This article focuses on the various ways in which “identity” figures in Afrikaans novels from 1996 to 2006, particularly with reference to the way in which diasporic displacement and death can be connected to the problem of identity. The various options that are identified in the texts are connected by means of the structuralist idea that meaning is produced as “a system of differences with no positive terms”. The figure of the trickster, as it appears in one novel from this time, namely “Niggie” by Ingrid Winterbach, is used as heuristic framework for the study, and as a provisional way understanding the production of the variety of identity options in the novels.
Keywords
Afrikaans Prose; 1996-2006; Identity; Structuralism; Trickster
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