Nataniël en sy stories: ’n Verkennende postuurstudie van Nataniël se verhaalkuns

Abstract

Nataniël and his tales: an exploratory posture study of Nataniël's short fiction. Nataniël is the author of 336 published stage stories: short fiction originally written as part of Nataniël's popular shows in which he alternates performing these stories with covering existing songs or singing his own. These texts are uniquely positioned in the South African and Afrikaans literatures. On the one hand, the volumes in which these texts are published have been greeted with a relatively substantial corpus of reviews and a few of Nataniël's stories have been anthologized, most notably by Loots and Van Wyk (2019). Furthermore, the beginnings of academic interest in Nataniël's work are becoming apparent (Van der Bijl, 2018; Van Eeden, 2022) and an academic paper on Nataniël's self-fashioning as public persona has been published (Erasmus-Alt and Viljoen, 2021). On the other hand, there is a need for close reading of Nataniël's stories, especially of the individual texts. The lack of such readings could be due to the texts not being presented or received as bona fide short stories. The origin of the texts as monologues in Nataniël's shows could also discourage discussion of them as published texts. Related to this is the view of Nataniël's stories by some reviewers (Burger, 2015; Roux, 2014) as popular fiction, which does correspond to a certain degree with Nataniël's own presentation of them (Maria:6). Classification of Nataniël's texts in this manner could influence its supposed worthiness of canonization and academic discussion. Despite - but also precisely because of - the debatable meaningfulness of academic literary analysis of these texts, this MA dissertation undertakes the task of carrying out an oeuvre study of Nataniël's short fiction. In addition to the stories written as part of Nataniël's shows, twelve pieces of flash fiction and a children's story written for publication are included in the discussion (in the study itself, I argue why Nataniël's Kaalkop column for the magazine Sarie is not included in the dicussion). The methodology for this study is informed by the salient characteristics of Nataniël's texts, the reception of his published volumes as well as the nascent academic interest in his work and persona. Nataniël is not only the author of these texts but can in most cases also be identified as the first-person narrator-character, albeit in fictionalized form. In other texts, the narrator can often be viewed as an alter ego of Nataniël due to his recognizability as a public figure known not only as a writer but also in various other capacities. Moreover, Nataniël narrates his engagement in these capacities within the context of his stories. The close narratological ties between Nataniël and his texts are reflected in and strengthened by the fact that one often has his distinctive stage persona and well-known voice in mind when reading these stories, a point made in the reviews of his work as well as comments from readers. Considering these features, I discuss Nataniël's stories with reference to four images of Nataniël which are activated, affirmed and undermined therein. In this regard, I draw from research on authorial self-fashioning, particularly that of Viala (2016), Meizoz (2009; 2010) and Korthals Altes (2014). Though Nataniël's texts suppose a strong link between biographical author and text, attention is paid to the fact that this link and the Nataniël persona are co-constructed by the reader and Nataniël; and that these constructions do not necessarily correspond to the person Nataniël le Roux. Bearing this in mind, a discussion of Nataniël's self-fashioning as public persona is carried out as follows, indicating that his activity in various capacities can be traced back to three 'Nataniëls': the funny man, the aesthete and the organic intellectual. Though Nataniël later dissociates himself from the cabaret as a fitting description of his shows, it is argued that this genre is ideally suited for the expression of all three Nataniëls mentioned. The cabaret can best be distinguished from similar genres and art forms with reference to the particular understanding that characterizes the relationship between the cabaret artist and his audience. Cabaret feeds on the tension between intimacy and distancing, and between entertainment and some form of moraldidactic instruction. In particular, it is Nataniël's recognizable sense of humour, which is often impersonated by others, which contributes to the intimacy between himself and his audience or reader. In his early shows humour is an intrinsic component of the political satire on the apartheid system and attendant ideologies. The shift away from specifically political satire since the volume Maria Maria (1999) initially suggests a corresponding shift away from the cabaret, especially given that Nataniël no longer cites the origin of the stories in his published volumes as cabaret monologues. The discussions of Nataniël as a clown, instructor and volkskrywer provide perspective on this. Since the publication of the volume Kaalkop 2 (2008), Nataniël's short fiction signal an intensified moral-didactic approach. I show that Nataniël makes use of explicitly didactic genres and conventions such as the formulation of a lesson, the structure of a parable and essayistic argumentation with the intention of pursuading his reader to his way of thinking. The ars poetica formulated in his Kaalkop column for the women's magazine Sarie suggests that Nataniël truly believes that what he has to say can be of great benefit to his readers, humanity in general as well as the planet. These findings are further explored in the discussion of Nataniël as a volkskrywer - an Afrikaans term of endearment indicating not only that a writer has come to be considered a national treasure but also that he in some way writes about and for the general public or a particular section of that public. His combination of humoristic-satirical and didactic approaches increasingly positions Nataniël and his short fiction as a kind of idiosyncratic contemporary response to the iconic Afrikaans volkskrywer C.J. Langenhoven. Instead of the more typical occurrence that some of his stories are repeated informally between people such that they become anonymous folk tales - as is the case with humoristic-satirical volkskrywers as Jan Spies and Herman Charles Bosman - it is Nataniël's posture as a writer that has become common property. For the past two decades anonymously written texts have been incorrectly attributed to Nataniël on the basis of their similarity to his stories. His own vehement disdain of this phenomenon indicates that control over his public image remains a priority to Nataniël. Nataniël's general popularity among the (white) South-African public is shown to be paradoxical. Having presented himself and being regarded especially by the conservative Afrikaner establishment as a rebellious, polarising figure early in his career, in recent years Nataniël has come to be lovingly regarded as a national treasure. This change in his persona can be traced in some of Nataniël's stories. On balance, however, in his characterization of himself in the stories he keeps up the image of himself as a clownish outsider. Even after the public's perception of him changes Nataniël, seemingly chooses to maintain the relationship between the cabaret artist and his public which characterized his early career. On the one hand, Nataniël's nascent posture as a volkskrywer can be regarded as the result of his postures as a cabaret artist, clown and instructor. On the other hand, given the manner in which Nataniël makes use - or doesn't make use - of his appeal to a broad public, cabaret remains an interpretative key to his short fiction and selffashioning as writer and public persona. Nataniël's youth memoir carries the telling title Look at me: recollections of a childhood (2019). The aesthetic element prominent in Nataniël's various capacities makes the metaphor "look at me" a fitting one for his activities as a public persona as well as his authorship and short fiction. One could add that as funny man Nataniël allows his reader to laugh at/with me. However, both as humourist and aesthete Nataniël invites his reader to listen to me. The conclusion of this oeuvre study of Nataniël's short fiction is that these are singular texts that demand to be read more attentively and ntelligently than is sometimes the case, as Loots (2020) justly suggests in a review of one of Nataniël's works