Op weg na Welgevonden met emblematische uitrusting: "Sewe dae by die Silbersteins" gelezen in het kader van het embleem-onderzoek
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Date
2002-12
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Suider-Afrikaanse Vereniging vir Neerlandistiek
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Abstract
The article argues that the research methods specific for historical literary genres may be applied in the interpretation of modern literature. In his analysis of Etienne Leroux's novel "Sewe dae by die Silbersteins" (1962) from the book "Op weg na Welgevonden" (1970) John Kannemeyer distinguished a number of dual structures and indicated their similarity to the structure of the emblem. Kannemeyer proposed that Leroux consciously exploited the centuries-old European tradition of the emblem, in this way escaping demonstrative didacticism and making the novel more dynamic by the ingenious use of emblematic structure synthesising the visual and the verbal.
Following Kannemeyer's proposal the authors tried to verify to what extent the series of images which he distinguished with respective commentaries are convergent with the theoretically elaborated concept of the emblem. For this purpose the authors employed B. F. Scholz's analytical model, which emphasises the emblem's elucidating and moralising functions.
The article concludes that "Sewe dae by die Silbersteins" does not directly refer to nor does it revive the emblematic genre, while on the other hand constant presence and pervasion of the image and its exegesis constitutes the pivot of the novel's structure. The analysis of the relationship between the two equips the novel with the new meaning. In his search for a new mythology which could become a modern description of human condition Leroux followed the creators of emblems from the 16th and 17th centuries, who explained divine revelations and the principles of divine order to their contemporaries.
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Afrikaans Literature, South Africa, South African Literatures, Etienne Leroux, Emblem Studies, literatura afrikaans, literatura południowoafrykańska, Afryka Południowa
Citation
Tydskrif vir Nederlands en Afrikaans, 9de Jaargang (2002), 2, pp. 126-149