The Unifying Aspects of Cultures

SECTION:

Exile and Migration

Hein Viljoen (Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education)
Exile, migration and deterritorialisation in the work of three Afrikaans poets

This paper will look at exile and deterritorialisation (in the sense of Deleuze and Guattari) in three collections of Afrikaans poetry, namely Tristia (1964) by N.P. van Wyk Louw, die ysterkoei moet sweet (the iron cow must sweat, 1964)) by Breyten Breytenbach and Kleur kom nooit alleen nie (Colour never comes alone, 2000) by Antjie Krog. Louw's and Breytenbach's collections were written in exile and Krog's can be regarded as written in the state of internal exile repesented by moving in the "new country" of South Africa after 1994 and into the wider space of Africa as a whole. The three collections represent canonized work by three generations of Afrikaans poets: the generations of the 1930s, the 1960s and the 1970s. Though vastly different in style and poetic approach the three collections constitute three different kinds of deterritorialisation - three different ways of questioning and moving beyond a certain semiotic and social order. This deterritorialisation will be explored in a number of key poems from the three collections.

THE UNIFYING ASPECTS OF CULTURES