M.A. / Although critics have acknowledged the work of Wilma Stockenstrom and have responded favourably, and although she has received four awards and prizes for her poetry up to the publication of Monsterverse, no all-embracing study of her poetry has been undertaken. Many of the reviews and critical analyses have failed to give proper recognition to her first two volumes of poetry. Consequently the process of development in her work has been largely overlooked, and Monsterverse, although acclaimed, has been assessed as "problematic" and totally "foreign". This study therefore attempts to determine the tendencies which figure in Wilma Stockenstrom's poetry, and examines in particular the iconicity of thematics and prosody as it has developed throughout successive volumes. Most of the themes developed in the later volumes are introduced in her debut work, Vir die Bysiende Leser. Some of the themes explored in this volume, however, lose their significance in later volumes. Although the prosody is still somewhat uncertain in some of the poems, a few poems already suggest her unique and individualistic application of this aspect of style. In this early work it is already apparent that her real power lies in the writing of free verse. She exploits this verse form with rich variety throughout her four volumes. Vir die Bysiende Leser clearly functions as a unit. The intratextuality of the poems is a striking structural aspect of. this work. Unity is also emphasized in the following three volumes, but progressively more attention is given to intertextuality. Stockenstrom's work clearly links up with the intertextual tradition which N. P. van Wyk Louw's Tristia and D.J. Opperman's Komas uit n Bamboesstok have established in Afrikaans literature.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:4133 |
| Date | 18 February 2014 |
| Creators | Landwehr, Selma Louise |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Johannesburg |
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