Browsing by Author "Loots, Sonja"

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    Ensiklopediese fiksie in die oeuvre van Marlene van Niekerk
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-03) Loots, Sonja; Viljoen, Louise; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Afrikaans and Dutch
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research investigates the prevalence of encyclopedic elements in three Afrikaans novels by Marlene van Niekerk: Triomf (1994), Agaat (2004) and Memorandum: ’n Verhaal met skilderye (2006). Definitions of “encyclopedic fiction”, “encyclopedic forms” and “encyclopedic narrative” by Northrop Frye (1957), Edward Mendelson (1976), Hilary Clark (1990 and 1992) and Leo Bersani (1990) are considered. I investigate the relationship between Enlightenment encyclopedias and the novels of early fictional encyclopaedists such as Miguel de Cervantes, François Rabelais, Robert Burton and Laurence Sterne; and argue that the historical relationship between the factual and the encyclopedic novel is still influential. I point out connections between early modern encyclopedic novels and Van Niekerk's novels. I argue that her novels display features of encyclopedic narrative, but that in local context it alters this genre in dynamic and innovative ways. With reference to Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1965) work on Rabelais, I explore the meaning of scatological images and the appearance of monsters and giants in Van Niekerk's novels. Other oeuvre patterns related to encyclopedism are also explored. The rewriting of the Faustus myth is analyzed and associated with the figure of the heir. The metafictional importance of characters wrestling with encyclopedic knowledge, and their teachers are discussed. I postulate that the reprocessing of encyclopedic sources and source material is a creative strategy and illustrate that this strategy is thematised in the novels themselves. I note differences in the use of sources and source material in the various novels and conclude that Van Niekerk's work speaks of ambivalence toward the Afrikaans and South African contexts in which it originated.