Walk through a fictional dreamed space. Audiovisual installation combines surround sound and parallel text commentary. Using the imagination of sound illusion, projected text and absence of image, it aims to motivate the spactator's dreaming.

Les romans de Dostoïevski et de Bernanos se rencontrent sur la frontière fragile de la littérature et de la métaphysique ; l’incarnation des personnages dans des espaces et des lieux que leurs cœurs troublés contaminent donne au texte son symbolisme essentiel, qui n’est ni le « paysage choisi » romantique, ni l’espace surdéterminé des réalistes. L’incarnation ne contredit pas les règles de la création romanesque, puissamment remodelées par les deux auteurs, mais les refondent dans des histoires familiales archétypales où la maison paternelle peut être le lieu d’un meurtre moral initial. Derrière les discours de personnages bavards, avides de philosophie et de psychologie (ce qui a longtemps retenu surtout l’attention de la critique), se cache la question du langage et de l’esthétique face à la vérité. Beaucoup sont des menteurs, qui ont oublié le sens du langage enraciné auquel croyait Bernanos, et les soliloqueurs de Dostoïevski se perdent dans les méandres de leurs souterrains verbaux. La question de l’esthétique est tributaire des vicissitudes d’une époque (les années 1880-1930) qui est celle du déracinement des intellectuels ; quelle est cette beauté qui « sauvera le monde » dans un univers qui n’est plus théocentré, et quelle est la légitimité du romancier à en proposer la quête, surtout si elle est spirituelle ? Malgré la présence de figures du salut qui, dans la douleur de confrontations violentes, proposent l’acceptation de l’altérité, les déracinés persistent souvent dans la voie du mensonge et préfèrent le masque démoniaque du double ou le néant de l’«à quoi bon ? » / Dostoyevsky's and Bernanos's novels meet up on the frail boundary between literature and metaphysics; the incarnation of characters in spaces and places tainted by their troubled hearts gives the text its essential symbolism, which is neither the romantic "chosen landscape" nor the realists' overdetermined space. Incarnation does not contradict the rules of fictional creation —powerfully remodeled by the two authors— but recasts them in archetypal family stories where the father's home can be the locus of an initial moral murder. Behind the words of garrulous characters, who are eager for philosophy and psychology (which long caught the critics' attention), there lies the question of language and aestheticism confronted with truth. Many of them are liars who have forgotten the meaning of the entrenched language which Bernanos cherished, and Dostoyevsky's soliloquists get lost in the rambling development of their convoluted wording. The question of aestheticism depends on the vicissitudes of a period (1880-1930) which was marked by the uprooting of intellectuals: what is this beauty which will "save the world", a world which is no longer theo-centred, and how legitimate is a novelist who proposes its quest, especially if it is a spiritual one? Despite the existence of salvation figures who, through the suffering caused by violent confrontation, propose the acceptance of otherness, the uprooted characters often choose to lie persistently and prefer the demonic mask of duality or the nothingness of the "a quoi bon", an expression of absolute indifference and disillusionment.

Hierdie proefskrif bied ʼn nie-empiriese ondersoek en ʼn konseptuele analise van die verhouding tussen ruimte en identiteit in Eben Venter (1954-) se oeuvre binne die konteks van ballingskapliteratuur die postkoloniale diskoers. Die manifestasie van die ruimte- identiteitdialektiek, soos wat dit uitgebeeld word in Venter se skryfkuns, word beskryf aan die hand van postkoloniale teorieë en insigte wat verband hou met aspekte soos ruimte, plek, ballingskap, diaspora, ruimtelike verplasing, seksuele migrasie, intra-nasionale migrasie, internasionale migrasie, empiriese en kulturele landskappe, identiteit as sosio-kulturele konstruksie en Suid-Afrikaanse outobiografieë. Vir die doel van hierdie ondersoek is die volgende vertellings geselekteer: Ek stamel ek sterwe (1996), Twaalf (2000), Horrelpoot(2006) en Brouhaha (2010). In ʼn tydsgewrig van grootskaalse migrasie, globale onsekerheid, transnasionale kapitalisme en radikale dekolonisering in die vorm van geweldsmisdaad, gewelddadige betogings by universiteite, plaasmoorde, grondhervorming, haatspraak, arbeidsonrus, xenofobie en die aftakeling van minderheidsregte, sny Venter in sy verhale en outobiografie ʼn verskeidenheid van kwessies aan. Dit sluit in: die naweë van apartheid, die Afrikaner-diaspora, grondeienaarskap, die ideologiese toeëiening van grond, rassisme, homofobie, queer-migrasie, die haalbaarheid van ʼn inklusiewe Afrika-identiteit en die veranderde rol, plek en identiteit van Afrikaners sedert 1994. Die outobiografiese inslag van Venter se skryfkuns is opvallend en word bespreek deur te verwys na die verhouding tussen fiksionele en reële ruimtes en na outobiografie as hibridiese genre en kreatiewe projek. Hierdie studie bied ook ʼn krities-analitiese besinning van Venter se bemoeienis met skryftemas soos selfopgelegde ballingskap, die vervreemding tussen plek en self, globale plekloosheid en “exile as a discontinous state of being” (Said 2000: 177). Een van die belangrikste insigte wat Venter in sy skryfkuns demonstreer, is dat ruimte, soos identiteit, nie ʼn essensialistiese konsep is nie, maar ’n onvoltooide en vloeibare konstruksie wat voortdurend verander na gelang van sosio-politieke ingrepe, internasionale migrasiepatrone en die individu se subjektiewe gewaarwording van plekke, / This dissertation presents a non-empirical and a conceptual analysis of the relationship between space and identity in the works of prose of Eben Venter (1954) within the context of the postcolonial discourse and exile literature. The manifestation of the space-identity dialectic, as portrayed in Venter’s writing, is described on the basis of postcolonial theories and insights related to terms and concepts like space, place, exile, diaspora, spatial displacement, sexual migration, intra-national migration, international migration, empirical and cultural landscapes and identity as a social-cultural construction. For the purpose of this study the following narratives were selected: Ek stamel ek sterwe (1996), Twaalf (2000), Horrelpoot en Brouhaha (2010). At a juncture of mass migration, global uncertainty, transnational capitalism and radical decolonization in the form of violent crime, violent protests at universities, hate speech, farm murders, land reform, labour unrest, xenophobia and the dismantling of minority rights, Venter addresses an assortment of social issues. This include: the aftermath of apartheid, the Afrikaner-diaspora, landownership, the ideological appropriation of land, racism, homophobia, queer-migration, the viability of an inclusive African-identity and the altered role, place and identity of Afrikaners since 1994. The autobiographical element is evident in Venter’s writing and is discussed by referring to the relationship between fictional and real spaces and to autobiography as a hybrid genre and creative project. This study also presents a critical-analytical reflection of Venter’s involvement with writing topics such as self-imposed exile, estrangement between place and self, global displacement/non-belongingness and “exile as a discontinuous state of being” (Said: 2000: 177). One of the key insights Venter demonstrates in his writing, is that space, like identity, is not an essentialist concept, but an incomplete and diffuse construction that is constantly changing depending on socio-political interventions, international migration patterns and the individual's subjective perception of places. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / D. Litt. et Phil. (Afrikaans)