Die inisiasiemotief by Hugo Claus, verduidelik aan die hand van 'De ingewijde' en ander gedigte

Abstract

The motif of initiation occurs repeatedly in the poetry of Hugo Claus and it can be regarded as an important key to his early work. In the series De ingewijde it is clear that the poems are not simply imitations or embodiments of traditional initiation rituals or ceremonies. In the poems there are almost concealed correspondences, and in order to determine their meaning initiation has to be studied as a universal phenomenon. In the first place one has to study what initiation means as a universal phenomenon, and then initiation in Hugo Claus’s poetry is studied.