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Wamkelekile, Welkom
Wamkelekile, Welkom
Erratum: Strangely Familiar
26 May 2002
BECAUSE of some crazy deadlines in the week around March 21, we went to print before Professor Chris van der Merwe could make comments on the piece on his new book, Strangely Familiar. We would like to offer our apologies to Prof van der Merwe for this, and include below some comments he would like to add:
"The report about Strangely Familiar refers to links between 'two literatures', Afrikaans and African literature. This creates the impression that the book deals with 'two literatures'; but I argued that we should start thinking about one South African literature produced in the many languages of the country.
"Furthermore, it is stated that the farm is only depicted in 'older' Afrikaans literature. This could create a false impression, since the farm as a (mostly negative) ideological concept is still very much alive in present Afrikaans fiction. Only for very young writers making their debut in the late nineties, the farm has lost its significance.
Chris van der Merwe
"The report about Strangely Familiar refers to links between 'two literatures', Afrikaans and African literature. This creates the impression that the book deals with 'two literatures'; but I argued that we should start thinking about one South African literature produced in the many languages of the country.
"Furthermore, it is stated that the farm is only depicted in 'older' Afrikaans literature. This could create a false impression, since the farm as a (mostly negative) ideological concept is still very much alive in present Afrikaans fiction. Only for very young writers making their debut in the late nineties, the farm has lost its significance.
Chris van der Merwe
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