N.P. van Wyk Louw redefined the context-bound Afrikaans literature and criticism in the thirties
to establish a new ‘national’ creative and critical discourse in Afrikaans. The central premise of
this study is the correlation between Louw’s conceptualisation of a ‘national’ literature and Paul
Ricoeur’s interpretation of utopia.
In the essay collections Berigte te velde and Lojale verset (1939) Louw offers a new and
confrontational grasp on the established Afrikaans literature and criticism (social and literary)
within the context of Afrikaans nationalism. Louw formulates his directives for literature and
society in a system of oppositional concepts. The central dualism in as well as the intellectual
and structural foundation of his innovative ideas is the conceptualisation of a ‘national’ and
‘colonial’ literature. In accordance with Ricoeur’s oppositional analysis of utopia and ideology
(1978a, 1981b, 1986), Louw’s distinction between a ‘national’ and ‘colonial’ literature is
investigated in this study as a binary opposition based on the dualism utopia/ideology. The
exploration of the ‘national’ literature as utopia and the ‘colonial’ as ideology includes the role of
subordinate oppositions, among which are individual/nation and individual/national identity, in
the sustaining of this polar structure. The unavoidable conflict between and exclusion of
opposing elements are demonstrated by an analysis of the breaks in the reconciliation which
Louw tries to effect between the ‘national’ and ‘colonial’ literatures. With reference to Ricoeur
and Thompson (1984) the function of power as the common factor in utopia/ideology and the
‘national’/’colonial’ literature is investigated, and the realisation of an element of power in
Louw’s critical discourse is explored.
Key words: N.P. van Wyk Louw, Paul Ricoeur, binary opposition, Afrikaner nationalism, national
literature, utopia, ideology, identity, power
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/6730 |
| Date | 13 March 2009 |
| Creators | Cattell, Karin |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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