M.A. (Afrikaans) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Since Eybers went to live in Amsterdam in 1961 her poetry has always been simultaneously published in Amsterdam and Cape Town. Nine of her sixteen collections since she made her debut in 1936 can therefore be called "Dutch" in the sense that they have not only been published in the Netherlands, but have also been reviewed there extensively and very positively. She is regarded as a poet belonging to the Dutch literary tradition, and was awarded the highest prize for Dutch literature in 1991. All of this has happened without her losing her South African readership or status as one of the greatest Afrikaans poets. In this study I present an overview of the situation in Holland with regard to the scant acceptance and Jack of knowledge of Afrikaans and of its literature at the time Eybers went to live there. The uniqueness of her Dutch acceptance is analysed against this background. An overview of her Dutch and South African reviews (1962-1992)clearly shows that Dutch reviewers have always been fascinated by the fact that they can understand her work in spite of the fact that Afrikaans is otherwise considered a language from which texts need to be translated into Dutch in order to be readable and marketable. Because Eybers lives in the Netherlands she shares a frame of reference with her Dutch readers. Her language has incorporated many typical Dutch phrases, allowing her poetry to become more accessible and familiar to Dutch readers. Basically,though, she still writes in Afrikaans and South African readers still read and regard her as an Afrikaans poet In her poems - which often describe her state of voluntary exile and In which memories of the vast South African landscape are described - South African readers therefore find much which is familiar to them. Her themes -Iove.Ionellness, ageing, death, estrangement - are universal. In spite of this wide acceptance an in depth study or the particularities of the Eybers Idiolect and fields of reference clearly shows that both sets of leaders are constantly faced with quite severe comprehension problems. I therefore argue that the work of Eybers offers a unique example of "making it strange", the element which the Russian Formalists regarded as the essentiai difference between natural language and poetic language. The "double world" and "go between" language of Eybers result in a blend of intimacy and strengeness which two sets of readers experience in different ways. I argue that particular "ungrammaticalities" make her "Dutch" volumes "doubly poetical". Formalist, reception and semiotic theories are employed in a descriptive explanation of the Eybers phenomenon. / Andrew Chakane 2018

Since earliest times death has been an important and always actual theme in the arts. The point of departure of this thesis is to examine the portrayal of the ”discourse of and about death” in the poems of three women poets, namely Elisabeth Eybers, Olga Kirsch and Eveleen Castelyn. Various aspects of death thematics are considered and, from a formal perspective, the presence and absence of traditional forms concerning death, such as the ”obituary poem”, the ”elegy”, the ”dirge” and the ”threnody” are investigated. The research plan and the development of the study are dealt with in chapter one. The problem formulation and theoretical approaches for this study are given special attention. In chapter two the death theme in literature throughout the centuries, and specifically in poetry, is relevant. Death thematics occurring in English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Chinese, American, Russian, German, French and Spanish literatures are examined. Philosophical and Christian viewpoints concerning death are also investigated. The portrayal of death in the poetry of Elisabeth Eybers is the topic in chapter three. Her oeuvre is devided into four periods. The collections from Belydenis in die skemering up to Rymdwang are only summarily referred to, since this section has already been dealt with in my MA dissertation (Schutte, 1988). The following six volumes are discussed in detail concerning her religious views and the portrayal of death by way of various subthemes and stances. Chapter four is dedicated to the poetry of Olga Kirsch and in chapter five to that of Eveleen Castelyn. In chapter six a comparison is drawn between the three poets regarding their shared death thematics, similarities and differences in their mode of betrayal and their views on the afterlife. During her oeuvre Eybers adopts an agnostic view, Kirsch embraces the Jewish faith and Castelyn holds a Christian point of view throughout her oeuvre. At the end of the study a summary and findings are given and the conclusion, that the three poets increasingly become preoccupied with death, is reached. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / (D. Litt. et Phil. Afrikaans))

Since earliest times death has been an important and always actual theme in the arts. The point of departure of this thesis is to examine the portrayal of the ”discourse of and about death” in the poems of three women poets, namely Elisabeth Eybers, Olga Kirsch and Eveleen Castelyn. Various aspects of death thematics are considered and, from a formal perspective, the presence and absence of traditional forms concerning death, such as the ”obituary poem”, the ”elegy”, the ”dirge” and the ”threnody” are investigated. The research plan and the development of the study are dealt with in chapter one. The problem formulation and theoretical approaches for this study are given special attention. In chapter two the death theme in literature throughout the centuries, and specifically in poetry, is relevant. Death thematics occurring in English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Chinese, American, Russian, German, French and Spanish literatures are examined. Philosophical and Christian viewpoints concerning death are also investigated. The portrayal of death in the poetry of Elisabeth Eybers is the topic in chapter three. Her oeuvre is devided into four periods. The collections from Belydenis in die skemering up to Rymdwang are only summarily referred to, since this section has already been dealt with in my MA dissertation (Schutte, 1988). The following six volumes are discussed in detail concerning her religious views and the portrayal of death by way of various subthemes and stances. Chapter four is dedicated to the poetry of Olga Kirsch and in chapter five to that of Eveleen Castelyn. In chapter six a comparison is drawn between the three poets regarding their shared death thematics, similarities and differences in their mode of betrayal and their views on the afterlife. During her oeuvre Eybers adopts an agnostic view, Kirsch embraces the Jewish faith and Castelyn holds a Christian point of view throughout her oeuvre. At the end of the study a summary and findings are given and the conclusion, that the three poets increasingly become preoccupied with death, is reached. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / (D. Litt. et Phil. Afrikaans))