Die struktuur van die tekskode: die strukturele organisasie van 'Die jonkmanskas' van Koos Prinsloo

Abstract

A unique quality of literature is that the text system is not just an instrument for conveying a literary message; the structure of the system is in itself meaningful. This article will closely examine the structural organisation and the functional significance of Koos Prinsloo’s short story “Die Jonkmanskas” . “Die jonkmanskas” is a story with a complex structure, written in the postmodernist idiom, and originated from three distinct stories. These embedded stories simultaneously work as commentaries, parodies and corrective devices, so that the ultimate interpretation of “Die jonkmanskas” is also determined through its structural code. An important aspect of this short story, which is highlighted by the structural code, is the interaction between the author’s text, the narrator’s text and the character’s text. In this [pseudo] autobiography the distinction between the actual author, the abstract author and the narrator is gradually erased, because time and again the narrator changes his role from character to narrator to author.