Scielo RSS http://www.scielo.org.za/rss.php?pid=0041-476X20100001&lang=en vol. 47 num. 1 lang. en http://www.scielo.org.za/img/en/fbpelogp.gif http://www.scielo.org.za http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100001&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article focuses on aspects of identity in the Afrikaans poetry of Wopko Jensma, published in three volumes of poetry, and in various magazines. Jensma apparently strove towards a new, "free" South African identity, which is clear from his idiosyncratic use of language, his perspectives on the sociopolitical circumstances of his time, and his visual art works. As the authors of this article have recently completed the most comprehensive study to date on Jensma's life, this article contains singularly fresh and new perspectives on this significant South African writer and artist. The authors purport that the Afrikaans literary historiography has, since the 1960s, maintained a distorted representation of Jensma's contribution not realising his importance. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100002&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Every literary system possesses a canon with the classical canon as the most stable and simultaneously the one with the most restrictive access. Writers and texts can only maintain their position within the canon through continuous rewriting: critical rewriting by literary critics (as shapers of taste and gate-keepers) and creative rewriting by fellow writers. In this study the critical rewriting (and rerealisation) of one of the most acclaimed and seminal texts in Afrikaans literature, Raka (1941), by N. P. van Wyk Louw is scrutinized. Since its publication this verse epic has been firmly entrenched in the classical Afrikaans literary canon and its continuous rewriting / rerealisation can act as a case study of how a literary "masterpiece" is dependent on institutional relationships, relevant characteristics and strategic position-taking within a literary field in order to retain this status. Against the backdrop of a theoretical framework set out in part one of this study, the specifics of Raka's rewriting / rerealisation is discussed in the second part. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Petra Müller's collection of narrative works, Desembers ("Decembers", 2007), allows for an investigation into the portrayal of identity aspects that occupy a central position in her oeuvre: the relationship between man and nature as well as the nature of authorship. These narratives reflect upon a human being's place in the wide community of earth's beings and forces, and elucidate the multiple levels of communication between man and other living creatures, which is possible by sensory awareness and by embracing the "voices of silence" beyond the range of human language. In this article Müller's narratives are explored within the framework of literature as cultural ecology, including their becoming part of a re-integrative interdiscourse by means of reintegrating in the realm of imaginative literature the excluded to the cultural reality system. Müller often links natural objects to the creation of stories/art, thus integrating the spheres of nature and culture. This is done by reconstructing objects from nature, by means of imagination and by transcending reality, into symbols of the author's/artist's activity. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article focuses on the manifestations of love in A. H. M. Scholtz's volume of short stories Langsaan die vuur ("Next to the fire", 1996). The symbolical implications of the title in this regard are being investigated. A close look is then taken at love and / or the lack of it as a trait of as well as a driving force behind the behaviour of each character in the five short stories. Motives in this respect are inter alia: racism as a cause of lovelessness, love across ethnic barriers, jealousy as a generator of hatred, the human being as mere possession, motherly love, love within marriage, hatred as a result of projected frustration, erotic love, God as the source of true love, lack of love within the church and Christian community, the relationship between being treated with love and self esteem, emotional pain as a result of being treated in a loveless way, the willingness and/ or the ability to forgive, characters as pure manifestations of love or hatred as well as on occasion paradoxical combinations of both, spaces of love and of uncharitableness. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100005&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Polish writers and journalists frequently used the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) as a symbol of resistance against foreign rule in their country. Since 1795 till the end of World War I, Poland had been absent from the map of Europe, divided between the European powers of Prussia (later Germany), Russia and Austria. In this context, high hopes for independence were encouraged, among others, by the romantic patriotism of national uprisings. Foreign inspirations, such as the Anglo-Boer War, also embodied prospective freedom. Symbolic meanings of the Anglo-Boer War are most clearly visible in the youth literature of the time. At that period, youth literature was not only conceived as entertainment, but also as a messenger of contents forbidden from schools as a result of russification and germanisation policy. In this context, the Boer fight provided suitable ground for allusions to the contemporary political situation of Poland. Two factors facilitated the delivery of the idea of independence - the censorship was less strict with respect to the youth literature and, secondly, there existed strong Boer support on the side of the whole Europe. This paper aims at showing the ways in which the contents related to the state of subjugation, such as political repressions, forced migration, critique of the rulers, unfortunate national uprisings were all included in the books whose main plot took place in South Africa. Paradoxically, the symbolism of subjugation was accompanied by Polish colonial desires. The colonized Poles would eagerly recall the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest European powers in between 1386-1772. In this context, the myth of the Polish border - the area of the eastern frontier colonized by the Poles, covering roughly present day Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus was born. In this area, the Polish nobleman was viewed as an agent of acculturation, supposed to live in harmony with his neighbours and fight the barbarian Tatar hordes. The reality of the Commonwealth was, however, much less idyllic, much more brutal and colonial in its nature. Also this component of "Polish colonialism" was transported into the South African literary space. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100006&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en In this essay the emphasis is on the interplay between masculinity and femininity and in particular that of white masculinity versus black femininity, as well as the role played by black female sexuality in the formation of masculine identity in a rural setting in apartheid South Africa. The essay also looks at the representation of the female body and the role of the female body as site of contestation of socio-political assumptions about masculinity and femininity. The text under discussion is Zakes Mda's The Madonna of Excelsior (2002), which is based on real life events that occurred in the small Free State town of Excelsior in the 1970s. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100007&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article examines the use of parallelism in the poetry of G. V. Mona as contained in the anthology UVulindlela ("The Pathfinder", 1995). The discussion in this article commences by defining the concept of parallelism. Parallelism is discussed as it takes different forms, which include complete parallelism, incomplete parallelism and parallelism by linking. These forms are selected as they are clearly used in the poetry under study. The article also demonstrates what purpose is fulfilled by the parallelism used in Mona's poetry. Lastly, a concluding remark is included, where some findings and observations about the use of parallelism in Mona's poetry are highlighted. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100008&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The article deals with the aim of leaders in the Afrikaans community to maintain Afrikaans as a language of high-function formal contexts in post-1994 South Africa through the construction of a community which meaningfully includes all its speakers as members, referred to as a "speech community". Basing the concept "speech community" on Johnson and Milani's description of such a language as "a complete and society-bearing language" and on Pavlenko and Blackledge's notion of "a public", it lists the obstacles which the development of an "inclusive Afrikaans community" need to deal with and discusses five issues which have to be debated in such a developmental process. The article also provides a brief overview of activities which the Afrikaans establishment have organised since 2003 (referring to them as "the third Afrikaans language movement") to restore the language-political status of Afrikaans, and asks whether the emphasis on constructing an inclusive speech community is a creative way of addressing the problem with which they wish to deal. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100009&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The article deals with the aim of leaders in the Afrikaans community to maintain Afrikaans as a language of high-function formal contexts in post-1994 South Africa through the construction of a community which meaningfully includes all its speakers as members, referred to as a "speech community". Basing the concept "speech community" on Johnson and Milani's description of such a language as "a complete and society-bearing language" and on Pavlenko and Blackledge's notion of "a public", it lists the obstacles which the development of an "inclusive Afrikaans community" need to deal with and discusses five issues which have to be debated in such a developmental process. The article also provides a brief overview of activities which the Afrikaans establishment have organised since 2003 (referring to them as "the third Afrikaans language movement") to restore the language-political status of Afrikaans, and asks whether the emphasis on constructing an inclusive speech community is a creative way of addressing the problem with which they wish to deal. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100010&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The article deals with the aim of leaders in the Afrikaans community to maintain Afrikaans as a language of high-function formal contexts in post-1994 South Africa through the construction of a community which meaningfully includes all its speakers as members, referred to as a "speech community". Basing the concept "speech community" on Johnson and Milani's description of such a language as "a complete and society-bearing language" and on Pavlenko and Blackledge's notion of "a public", it lists the obstacles which the development of an "inclusive Afrikaans community" need to deal with and discusses five issues which have to be debated in such a developmental process. The article also provides a brief overview of activities which the Afrikaans establishment have organised since 2003 (referring to them as "the third Afrikaans language movement") to restore the language-political status of Afrikaans, and asks whether the emphasis on constructing an inclusive speech community is a creative way of addressing the problem with which they wish to deal. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100011&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The article deals with the aim of leaders in the Afrikaans community to maintain Afrikaans as a language of high-function formal contexts in post-1994 South Africa through the construction of a community which meaningfully includes all its speakers as members, referred to as a "speech community". Basing the concept "speech community" on Johnson and Milani's description of such a language as "a complete and society-bearing language" and on Pavlenko and Blackledge's notion of "a public", it lists the obstacles which the development of an "inclusive Afrikaans community" need to deal with and discusses five issues which have to be debated in such a developmental process. The article also provides a brief overview of activities which the Afrikaans establishment have organised since 2003 (referring to them as "the third Afrikaans language movement") to restore the language-political status of Afrikaans, and asks whether the emphasis on constructing an inclusive speech community is a creative way of addressing the problem with which they wish to deal. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100012&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This contribution surveys recent works on the Border War /Angolan War (1960-1990). It contrasts writings by political theorists, media analysts and literary scholars with works written by soldiers who fought in the war and recollections by embedded journalists. The article's main focus is on Gary Baines and Peter Vale's collection of essays entitled Beyond the Border War: New Perspectives on Southern Africa's Late Cold War Conflicts (Unisa Press, 2008). http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100013&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This contribution surveys recent works on the Border War /Angolan War (1960-1990). It contrasts writings by political theorists, media analysts and literary scholars with works written by soldiers who fought in the war and recollections by embedded journalists. The article's main focus is on Gary Baines and Peter Vale's collection of essays entitled Beyond the Border War: New Perspectives on Southern Africa's Late Cold War Conflicts (Unisa Press, 2008). http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100014&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en In Intieme afwesige ("Intimate absence", 2009), the Afrikaans poet Cas Vos gives shape to absence in quite an exceptional way. Absence as loss finds its expression through the two icons of love from the Middle Ages, Abelard and Heloise. In this, his fifth collection of poetry, Vos interprets the sadness and pain of these two exiles afresh. The voice given to their son, Astralabe, is a highlight of the volume. Intieme afwesige is an absorbing and well-structured collection in which most of the poems are oriented towards the polarities of loss and intimacy. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2010000100015&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en In Intieme afwesige ("Intimate absence", 2009), the Afrikaans poet Cas Vos gives shape to absence in quite an exceptional way. Absence as loss finds its expression through the two icons of love from the Middle Ages, Abelard and Heloise. In this, his fifth collection of poetry, Vos interprets the sadness and pain of these two exiles afresh. The voice given to their son, Astralabe, is a highlight of the volume. Intieme afwesige is an absorbing and well-structured collection in which most of the poems are oriented towards the polarities of loss and intimacy.