Reise in identiteit: aspekte van <i>plek</i> en <i>hoort</i> in verhale van Elsa Joubert en Riana Scheepers
Travels in identity: aspects of place and belonging in novels by Elsa Joubert and Riana Scheepers 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...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Afrikaans |
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AOSIS
2006-07-01
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| Series: | Literator |
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| Online Access: | https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/193 |
| Summary: | Travels in identity: aspects of place and belonging in novels by Elsa Joubert and Riana Scheepers
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. |
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| ISSN: | 0258-2279 2219-8237 |