Dirk Ligter as versetfiguur

Abstract

The Dirk Ligter texts in the oeuvre of Boerneef form a transtextual unit as a result of which a Dirk Ligter code is generated and consequently the Dirk Ligter texts become increasingly more duplicitous when read in the transtextual context of the volume Boplaas as a whole. In this oeuvre the emphasis is not on "well-made" units but rather on the process of activating signs which gradually become part of a Boplaas code. This code becomes a sign of an ethos which, in turn, signifies an existential space. An analysis of the epical elements figure, space, lime and events reveals how Dirk Ligter is portrayed as a clown, an artist, and as man on earth. In addition to becoming a representative of the so-called coloured people of Boplaas, he is, first and foremost, presented in the text as a resistance figure.