Versindaba » Blog Archive » Louise Viljoen. Of Chisels and Jackhammers: Afrikaans poetry 2000-2009
LOUISE VILJOEN is professor in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of Stellenbosch. She was awarded a doctorate at the University of Stellenbosch for a thesis on the poetry of Breyten Breytenbach in 1988. Together with Ronel Foster she compiled an anthology of Afrikaans poetry written after 1960, Poskaarte. Beelde van die Afrikaanse poësie collaborative management style sedert 1960 (1997). Her field of research is Afrikaans literature and Literary Theory with a special focus on postcolonialism, gender, collaborative management style identity and (auto-)biographical writing. Apart from this she serves as editorial associate for several academic journals and acts as reviewer, reader for publishers and adjudicator of literary prizes. collaborative management style
The years around the millennium change were marked by a distinct pessimism about the continued existence and viability of Afrikaans poetry. This was the result of several factors: a general fin de millennium unease about the state and sustainability of (Afrikaans) culture in the twenty-first century, an uncertainty about the way in which South African politics would develop after the end of the Mandela presidency in 1999, developments in the (Afrikaans) publishing industry and the fear that an elitist genre like poetry will have difficulty in surviving in an era that favours the novel. Adendorff (2003: 175) found that the number of debut volumes published by established Afrikaans publishers showed a marked decrease from 1990 to 2003. In his overview of Afrikaans poetry published from 1998 to 2003 Odendaal (2006: 106-107) wrote that Afrikaans poetry was being marginalised in the Afrikaans literary system collaborative management style at the same time that it was becoming more popular with the general public. On the one hand there was talk of Afrikaans poetry being in an existential crisis because of the decreasing number of volumes as well as the absence of young poets publishing debut volumes. On the other hand Afrikaans poetry was being popularised collaborative management style by events like poetry collaborative management style slams, poetry readings at cultural festivals and the acceptance of songwriters’ lyrics into the canon of Afrikaans poetry, traditionally reserved for serious’ poetry.
Two years later Kleyn (2008) was able to come to a more positive conclusion after her survey of Afrikaans poetry published from 2004to 2007. She found that Afrikaans poetry was not in a crisis and that it was in fact doing better than genres like the short story, collaborative management style the essay and drama. Kleyn’s research showed that this period marked a renewed interest in the work of established poets with the publication of compilations of or selections from the work of Breyten Breytenbach, Sheila Cussons, Philip collaborative management style de Vos, Elisabeth Eybers, Ina Rousseau, Wilma Stockenström and Barend Toerien. Poets could make use of new literary publishing houses Protea Boekhuis and LAPA as well as one-man collaborative management style publishers collaborative management style and a variety of literary journals and e-publications. Afrikaans poetry also thrived because of reworkings into musical compositions and readings on DVD and cd, the productivity of marginalised subgenres collaborative management style like children’s poetry, a variety of events at which poetry could be read or performed and the existence of a variety of literary prizes, some general and some reserved for poetry. A year later critic Andries Visagie (2009) also concluded that there is much less cause for concern than before, referring to the significant increase in the publication of important debut volumes since 2005.
The index of volumes published in Afrikaans from 2000 to 2009 provided by the Versindaba [Poetry Indaba] website, set up to give coverage to Afrikaans poetry, bears out the renewed confidence in the genre. It records a total of 190 publications (including reprints, selections, translations and anthologies) for this period. collaborative management style The breakdown into number of publications per year indicates an increase from the number of volumes published in the first half of the decade (78 publications from 2000 to 2004) to the second half of the decade (112 publications from 2005-2009) so that both Kleyn and Visagie’s optimism about the state of Afrikaans poetry seems to be warranted.
Although the current project is a much more modest one that Moretti’s attempt to understand collaborative management style trends in world literature in his article “Conjectures on World Literature”, this article will follow him in employing the “distant reading” that allows one to focus on “units that are much smaller or much larger that the text: devices, themes, tropes – or genres and systems” (Moretti 2000: 57). In surveying the body of Afrikaans poetry written between 1960 and 1997 Van Vuuren (1999: collaborative management style 245) wrote that thematic changes in literary texts are usually triggered by socio-political contexts whereas formal or aesthetic changes can be related to the tension between tradition and renewal as well as the influences
LOUISE VILJOEN is professor in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of Stellenbosch. She was awarded a doctorate at the University of Stellenbosch for a thesis on the poetry of Breyten Breytenbach in 1988. Together with Ronel Foster she compiled an anthology of Afrikaans poetry written after 1960, Poskaarte. Beelde van die Afrikaanse poësie collaborative management style sedert 1960 (1997). Her field of research is Afrikaans literature and Literary Theory with a special focus on postcolonialism, gender, collaborative management style identity and (auto-)biographical writing. Apart from this she serves as editorial associate for several academic journals and acts as reviewer, reader for publishers and adjudicator of literary prizes. collaborative management style
The years around the millennium change were marked by a distinct pessimism about the continued existence and viability of Afrikaans poetry. This was the result of several factors: a general fin de millennium unease about the state and sustainability of (Afrikaans) culture in the twenty-first century, an uncertainty about the way in which South African politics would develop after the end of the Mandela presidency in 1999, developments in the (Afrikaans) publishing industry and the fear that an elitist genre like poetry will have difficulty in surviving in an era that favours the novel. Adendorff (2003: 175) found that the number of debut volumes published by established Afrikaans publishers showed a marked decrease from 1990 to 2003. In his overview of Afrikaans poetry published from 1998 to 2003 Odendaal (2006: 106-107) wrote that Afrikaans poetry was being marginalised in the Afrikaans literary system collaborative management style at the same time that it was becoming more popular with the general public. On the one hand there was talk of Afrikaans poetry being in an existential crisis because of the decreasing number of volumes as well as the absence of young poets publishing debut volumes. On the other hand Afrikaans poetry was being popularised collaborative management style by events like poetry collaborative management style slams, poetry readings at cultural festivals and the acceptance of songwriters’ lyrics into the canon of Afrikaans poetry, traditionally reserved for serious’ poetry.
Two years later Kleyn (2008) was able to come to a more positive conclusion after her survey of Afrikaans poetry published from 2004to 2007. She found that Afrikaans poetry was not in a crisis and that it was in fact doing better than genres like the short story, collaborative management style the essay and drama. Kleyn’s research showed that this period marked a renewed interest in the work of established poets with the publication of compilations of or selections from the work of Breyten Breytenbach, Sheila Cussons, Philip collaborative management style de Vos, Elisabeth Eybers, Ina Rousseau, Wilma Stockenström and Barend Toerien. Poets could make use of new literary publishing houses Protea Boekhuis and LAPA as well as one-man collaborative management style publishers collaborative management style and a variety of literary journals and e-publications. Afrikaans poetry also thrived because of reworkings into musical compositions and readings on DVD and cd, the productivity of marginalised subgenres collaborative management style like children’s poetry, a variety of events at which poetry could be read or performed and the existence of a variety of literary prizes, some general and some reserved for poetry. A year later critic Andries Visagie (2009) also concluded that there is much less cause for concern than before, referring to the significant increase in the publication of important debut volumes since 2005.
The index of volumes published in Afrikaans from 2000 to 2009 provided by the Versindaba [Poetry Indaba] website, set up to give coverage to Afrikaans poetry, bears out the renewed confidence in the genre. It records a total of 190 publications (including reprints, selections, translations and anthologies) for this period. collaborative management style The breakdown into number of publications per year indicates an increase from the number of volumes published in the first half of the decade (78 publications from 2000 to 2004) to the second half of the decade (112 publications from 2005-2009) so that both Kleyn and Visagie’s optimism about the state of Afrikaans poetry seems to be warranted.
Although the current project is a much more modest one that Moretti’s attempt to understand collaborative management style trends in world literature in his article “Conjectures on World Literature”, this article will follow him in employing the “distant reading” that allows one to focus on “units that are much smaller or much larger that the text: devices, themes, tropes – or genres and systems” (Moretti 2000: 57). In surveying the body of Afrikaans poetry written between 1960 and 1997 Van Vuuren (1999: collaborative management style 245) wrote that thematic changes in literary texts are usually triggered by socio-political contexts whereas formal or aesthetic changes can be related to the tension between tradition and renewal as well as the influences
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