Syn en skyn as aspekte van die epiek van Henriette Grové en Chris Barnard

Abstract

Reality and sham as aspects of the epic of Henriette Grove and Chris Barnard The literary work of art has reality in it, but unquestionable differences arise between real life reality and reality within a novel, because the author has to recreate his reality situation by transposition. Literary work is essentially ficticious, although it often pretends the contrary. This study concentrates on the reality-image within the literary work of art. In particular the way in which two prominent South African writers have succeeded in embedding relative reality situations in their literary creations is analyzed. It is to be expected that each of them has done this in his/her own way. Chapters one to five consist of an analysis of some of the works of Henriette Grove, who places reality and illusion in juxtaposition. This makes her presentation of reality highly ironical. In addition she utilizes the paradox in the narrative Winterreis, giving us an opportunity to describe the thematic force of reality versus illusion. Her thematic preoccupation with life and death, good and bad, can only be discussed with any measure of completeness by taking her presentation of the relative realities in "Dood van 'n maagd" into account. Here the. concretizing role of the senses and the effective utilization of an indirect viewpoint are also described.

In chapters six and seven the focus falls on Chris Barnard's treatment of reality and illusion which differs radically from that of Grove. Although evil forms part of the theme of the short stories in Duiwel-in-die-bos, there is no resemblance to the Grove-approach. The seperate stories described are stylistically and thematically bound together by super- or sub-natural elements and illusion concretely presented in a make-believe reality is found. In Mahala, his only novel, Barnard has interwoven reality and illusion to such an extent that the objective reader is intentionally deceived (literarily functional). A constant interplay between reality and illusion forms the central structure of this novel and hence gives a bias to all its epic elements. This conception differs sharply from that of Grove who provides the reader with an objective perspective of greater completeness than that attained by her child characters. The latter ~re usually subjected to an illusion which is immediately clear to the reader and hence emphasizes the irony in the situation. The final chapter focusses attention on some symbols of reality and illusion appearing in the cited works. It is shown that Henriette Grove and Chris Barnard have each built up a system of symbols which forms an integral part of their creative work in the Afrikaans literature.