(T)erugdraai vir oulaas omkyk: visie en mobiliteit in Lot se vrou van Joan Hambidge

Abstract

The title Lot's Wife establishes a relation with the biblical narrative and activates two crucial aspects which play a central role in the anthology: a paradigm of mobility (as seen in the flight the movement away from the city) and a visual paradigm (as illustrated in the looking back at what is left behind). This article examines the way in which Hambidge deals with mobility and the visual in the context of the anthology, as well as the meaning which is attributed to a specific movement or manner of looking. The cultural and/or psychoanalytical view of looking back implies a double consciousness or analogical thinking, i.e. the opportunity to oscillate between possibilities, because looking back implies both a destructive look and a healing force. Looking back and looking forward determine the structure of the anthology while remembering and forgetting, and arrival and departure are continuous codes which are found in a refined manner throughout the anthology and which, at the same time, define the idiosyncratic manner in which the poet works.