Amsterdam ""deur die vensters van fiksie"". Literêre verbondenheid en relasionele ruimte in Die sneeuslaper van Marlene van Niekerk

Abstract

This article examines the connectedness with the Dutch literary system in Marlene van Niekerk's short story anthology, Die sneeuslaper; a connectedness that manifests specifually in the complex interaction of spatial relations, utith the empluJSis on Amsterdam as na"ative space. Amsterdam as the umother city"(Uzn Niekerk, 2009:12) becomes the creative impulse as well as the poetic frame tvithin which she presents her narrative in an idiosytUhratic nuzn11er. Die sneeuslaper can also be read within the international approach/idea of thinking space relationally and the new mobilities paradigm. As the nomadic characters and the stories migrate and play in on one another one can talk about spatial migration as well as spatial relationality between Stellenbosch and Amsterdam. The relation city-subject also manifests itself par excellence in Die sneeuslaper in the topos cf loss of identity and detachment; as well as the psychological topology of the characters. The change in identity and the disguise of homeless characters are simultaneously likened to a uprecipice" - a precipice of insanity to which different characters are driven in vari.ous ways.