Tradisie en vernuwing - Hierdie lewe van Karel Schoeman

Abstract

Tradition and renewal – Hierdie lewe by Karel Schoeman
Since the sixties generalizations have frequently been made regarding the difference between old (older, traditional) and new (newer, "modem") Afrikaans prose. Karel Schoeman’s novel Hierdie lewe (1993), however, shows the relativity of the dichotomy old vs. new prose. The theme of this novel is fairly traditional: a reminiscence of a life of hardship and loneliness in the South African platteland. Nevertheless the formalization of this theme is not that of the "gemoedelike lokale realisme" (a genial local realism) which N.P. van Wyk Louw referred to. The on-going process of “making strange/making unfamiliar” (Victor Shklovsky) is achieved by a specific style of writing. The novel’s merit lies in the fact that Schoeman, within the linguistic options available to him, within the focus of the chosen narrative perspective, and within the time frame of the 19th century, exhibits considerable creative mastery of the language - despite the constraints presupposed by each of these contexts. It is an outstanding achievement that Schoeman could find so many parallels and synonyms and integrate them in a diffuse but systematic way in his comprehensive novel.