Destruksie in die romans van Etienne Leroux met besondere verwysing na 'Onse Hymie' : 'n literêre ondersoek

Abstract

The novels of Etienne Leroux are to a large extent esoteric and one can find a key to penetrate to the secret in an aspect which often occurs in the novel viz. destruction. The attentive reader will note that the novelistic characters often become untidy and rundown, that they are injured and that they die. In the same way the space of the novel is subject to destruction. The space is ravaged by floods, by fire or by earthquakes. Ultimately the most basic building block of the novel, the word, is also subjected to an onslaught and decay in various ways. In this dissertation a brief overview is first provided of all the novels of Leroux, but emphasis was directed at the most recent novels of Leroux, and then in particular Onse Hymie. There are also other aspects which indicate decay. In this dissertation attention was also directed at the other aspects embodying decay and disintegration. A study was made of the aspect of time in the novels. The burlesque and the satirical are means of destruction and were also studied. In the last instance the literary genre, tragicomedy, was also investigated with a view to destruction. Were the novels of Leroux , however, to remain rooted in destruction, then they would only be embodying the contemporary spirit of an empty commercialized civilization. In his novels, however, there is also, in contradistinction to destruction, an opposite pole of reconstruction and revival, and therefore the novels rise above the contemporary spirit of materialism and a life of instant values. In the novels a vision of eternity is detected which offers hope for the reader.