Die Clarens-inspirasie en ruimtebeelding in Plek van die bruin geeste (Elsabe Steenberg)

Abstract

Clarens as literary inspiration. The depiction of space in Elsabe Steenberg’s novel Plek van die bruin geeste (Place of the brown spirits)
It is clear that much of Elsabe Steen berg’s artistic work was inspired by the mountainous Clarens in the Eastern Free State. Such is the case with her 1975 novel for adults - Plek van die bruin geeste (Place of the brown spirits). In this novel a city girl is abducted by a young man, an individualistic, outsider character who wants to get money to leave South Africa for a place like an island in the Pacific where race and colour will not be of such crucial importance as in South Africa. The importance of the possibilities of inner healing of the human being by spending time in nature is represented in this novel in the finest detail in various narrative patterns. The intention of the author is represented in a fundamentalist view of reality, namely that God is the Origin, the Giver of insight into the diversity, interrelatedness and meaning of reality, and that God is the real regenerating Force.