Margriet van der Waal

Long distance Afrikaners: Afrikaans literature and dislocated identity in a European context

During the 1980s and 1990s, thousands of (white) South Africans (many Afrikaans-speaking) left the country in search for a different and more stable political and economic situation abroad. This article focuses on the imagined expatriate identity expressed in three Afrikaans literary texts set in a European context. It examines Sabbatsreis by Annelie Botes, Dan Roodt’s Moltrein and 30 Nights in Amsterdam by Etienne van Heerden. By focusing on expatriate identities in these texts, it investigates how postcolonial Afrikaner subjectivity is formulated in a European context, and examines the representation of Afrikaners’ view of Europe. What does this Europe look like, and how does this Europe relate to the characters’ own Afrikaner identity? The “displaced” position of the protagonists enables a critical perspective on Europe, different interpretations of the South African situation, and various understandings of their own identity as postcolonial subjects.During the 1980s and 1990s, thousands of (white) South Africans (many Afrikaans-speaking) left the country in search for a different and more stable political and economic situation abroad. This article focuses on the imagined expatriate identity expressed in three Afrikaans literary texts set in a European context. It examines Sabbatsreis by Annelie Botes, Dan Roodt’s Moltrein and 30 Nights in Amsterdam by Etienne van Heerden. By focusing on expatriate identities in these texts, it investigates how postcolonial Afrikaner subjectivity is formulated in a European context, and examines the representation of Afrikaners’ view of Europe. What does this Europe look like, and how does this Europe relate to the characters’ own Afrikaner identity? The “displaced” position of the protagonists enables a critical perspective on Europe, different interpretations of the South African situation, and various understandings of their own identity as postcolonial subjects.

Catherine M. Cole, Performing South Africa’s Truth Commission. Stages of Transition

Interessant sind solche Texte besonders deshalb, weil sie an eine zentrale Schnittstelle von Wissen und Gesellschaft führen, an einen vielgestalten Ort, an dem am Verhältnis von Körper und Seele, von Körper und Psyche experimentiert wird. Sie beleuchten die Bedeutung von im 18. Jahrhundert neuen Therapien, die mit Elektrizität oder dem tierischen Magnetismus operieren, verweisen auf die im Entstehen begriffene Kategorie der Hysterie und machen deutlich, wie über das Körperspektakel Geschlechterverhältnisse, gesellschaftliche Hierarchie und Machttechniken in unterschiedlichen sozialen Räumen über Wort und Geste verhandelt werden.