This study examines the relationship between father and son in the novel Indische duinen (1994, 2002) by Adriaan van Dis within the context of post-war and postcolonial Dutch society. It relates the process by which an adult son, 36 years after the death of his father, comes to terms with the memory of a man whom he has always seen as unreasonably strict, violent and even cruel. During this process the son discovers the effects of colonialism, war, the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (subsequently Indonesia) and the process of rapid decolonisation and repatriation to the Netherlands upon his father. For the father the latter experiences amount to what Kaja Silverman (1992: 55) refers to as "historical trauma". The experiences that shaped his father and influenced his behaviour towards his son are linked to what Paul Ricoeur (1992: 121) would refer to as the father's "narrative identity" and his sense of masculinity (Cormell, 1995: 77 - 81) which have both been marginalised within the "dominant fiction" (Silverman, 1992: 54) of the postcolonial society in which he has been forced to live. As the son discovers the father through a process of retelling both his father's story and the story of their relationship he is able to gain sense of understanding and closure. Regarding issues of race and gender in Dutch colonialism and the trauma of postcolonial alienation this study draws upon the insights of E.M. Beekman (1988 and 1998), Frances Gouda (1998), Elsbeth Locher-SchoIten (1995), Rob Nieuwenhuys (1982), Edy Seriese (1995), Ann Laura Stoler (1992, 1995 and 1997) and Peter van Zonneveld (1995, 2002 and 2003). / Thesis (M.A.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.