’n Kort herbetragting van Uys Krige se prosa met verwysing na 'The dream' as sleutelteks

Abstract

Uys Krigc’s prose has always received less attention from scholars of the Afrikaans literature than his poetry, translations and plays, Krige was never awarded any Afrikaans literary prize for his prose, which evoked comparatively little interest from Afrikaans scholars. This article discusses possible reasons for the above situation regarding Krige’s prose, followed by a critical discussion of several factors that were decisive in the canonization of Krige as a poet, translator and playwright rather than as a prose writer. These include factors such as the reception of Krige’s prose in comparison with the other genres that he practised, and the compilation of anthologies, a practice by which texts are published in a context that differs from the original. The short story “The dream” (from The dream and the desert, 1953) is then discussed briefly, indicating several key features of Krige’s prose as contained in this text. The article concludes with a view that a reassessment of Krige’s work will probably show him to have been a better prose writer than a poet, contrary to past and, to a large extent, present assumptions.