Reise in identiteit: aspekte van plek en hoort in verhale van Elsa Joubert en Riana Scheepers
Abstract
’n Ondersoek na die belewing van plek en die veranderende
aard daarvan in die verhaal “Bloed” (uit Melk, 1980) van
Joubert en enkele verhale uit Scheepers se bundel Die ding in
die vuur (1990) dien om vas te stel wat die rol van
plekbelewing is ten opsigte van identiteitsvorming in hierdie
verhale. Uit “Bloed” blyk die dinamiese wyse waarop plekbelewing
identiteit beïnvloed: op ’n enkele dagreis verander die
hooffiguur se ervaring van vreemdelingskap in Afrika na ’n
identiteitsvereenselwiging met Afrika; ’n proses wat direk
verband hou met ’n drasties veranderde belewing van plek in
die verhaal. Al die kernaspekte van identiteitskonstruksie –
geslag, klas, ras en seksualiteit – is betrokke by hierdie
heroriënteringsproses en die gelyktydige intertekstuele toeeiening
en ondermyning van ’n klassieke Westerse gedig vind
plaas in die uitbeelding van die kragtige aanpassingsreaksie in
terme van plek- en identiteitsbelewing by die postkoloniale
situasie. Scheepers se verhale “Tweede kind”, “Drie sinvolle
gesprekke” en “Dom koei” verteenwoordig fases in die
veranderende identiteitsbelewing wat ooreenstem met die
identiteitsreis in “Bloed”, maar die identiteitsaanpassing vind
meer subtiel en geleidelik – intratekstueel uitgespeel oor drie
verhale – asook minder volledig plaas. Die veranderde aard van
plekbelewing, soos uitgebeeld by wyse van die topologiese
struktuur van die verhale en die effek van die filter-fokalisering,
steun weereens die proses van perspektiefverandering op en
identifikasie met Afrika An investigation into the experience of place and its changing
nature in the story “Bloed” [Blood] (from Melk, [Milk] 1980) by
Joubert and some stories from Scheepers’ collection Die ding
in die vuur [The thing in the fire] (1990) serves to establish the
role of the experience of place with regard to the development
of identity in these stories. In “Bloed” [Blood] the dynamic way
in which the experience of place influences identity is clear: on
a single day trip the main character’s experience of alienation in
Africa is transformed into an identification with Africa; a process
that is directly related to the radically changing experience of
place in the story. All the core markers of identity construction –
gender, class, race and sexuality – are involved in this process
of re-orientation; and the simultaneous, intertextual appropriation
and subversion of a classic Western poem occur in the
portrayal of the powerful adaptive reaction in terms of the
experience of place and identity within the post-colonial
situation. Scheepers’ stories: “Tweede kind” [Second child],
“Drie sinvolle gesprekke” [Three meaningful conversations] and
“Dom koei” [Daft cow] represent phases in the changing
experience of identity that correlate with the journey of identity
in “Bloed” [Blood], but the identity changes more subtly and
gradually – intratextually played out over three stories – as well
as less completely. The changing nature of the experience of place, as portrayed by means of the topographic structure of
the stories and the effect of the filter-focalisation, again
supports the process of a change in perspective on, and
identification with Africa
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/19278http://www.literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/193
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/lit.v27i2.193
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