Abstract

ODENDAAL, Bernard. Examples of especially language, but space as well, as cultural identity markers in Afrikaans poetry, 1925-2024. Tydskr. geesteswet. [online]. 2025, vol.65, n.1, pp.336-382. ISSN 2224-7912.  https://doi.org/10.17159/2224-7912/2025/v65n1a15.

Because of the diversity which characterises the composition of the South African population, together with the impact developments during colonial times, the apartheid dispensation and the post-colonial era have had on it, language (variety) and space have been, and still are, salient markers of cultural identities in this "[o]mstrede land" (contentious country -Changuion & Steenkamp, 2011). Their prominence in this regard is also reflected in South African literature. After defining the concept cultural identity, i.e. with special reference to observations by Urrieta (2018) in this regard, as well as to the either essentialist orflexible, transformational shapes cultural identities can take, some details are offered concerning the reasons why particularly language (variety) and locality concepts like place, country, land and landscape are so prominent as markers thereof in Afrikaans literature. This is followed by a summary survey of the literary-historical development reflected in the manifestation of such markers in representative works by Afrikaans poets over the past hundred years, i.e. since Afrikaans had attained official language status in 1925. The relevant periods in the history of Afrikaans literature are distinguished with reference to, among others, Van Coller and Odendaal (2009). During a phase of energetic, Afrikaner nationalist patriotism, covering the early twentieth century until about 1934, initially, after the Ango-Boer War of1899-1902, deposits of strong collective views of the above-mentioned cultural identity factors dominated in Afrikaans poetry - until more individualistic views came to the fore in poetry from the later period of the Second Afrikaans Movement (the 1920s and early 1930s). Poems by, among others, Toon van den Heever, serve as examples of the latter. This was followed by a period characterised by "liberal nationalism" (Louw, 1958) and international outreach (1934-1955). For example, international aesthetic standards were accepted as creative guidelines for Afrikaans literary art - ofwhich NP van Wyk Louw 's poem "Die beiteltjie" (The chisel) bears witness in a resonant manner. Stronger figurative verse with expanded vocabulary usage, of which a growing sensitivity to colloquialism was one expression, gained prominence. Furthermore, there was a greater openness to interaction with other literature systems than before. : Work by Elisabeth Eybers, an Afrikaans poet who would later settle permanently in the Netherlands, could increasingly be considered as belonging to both the Afrikaans and Dutch literary systems In the aftermath of the apartheid regime in South Africa there followed a literary period (1955-1989) in which political resistance and pervasive alienations among South African population groups found increasing expression. This was accompanied by increasing international isolation of the Afrikaans literature system. From the mid-sixties, more and more Afrikaans writers and intellectuals became alienated from the Afrikaner nationalist "Volksbeweging" (people's movement; Giliomee, 2004). During the late 1950s and the 1960s, "Sestiger" ('Sixties') writers advanced towards a broader internationalism, a quest for thematic expansion away from "the traditional Afrikaans motifs" (Kannemeyer, 2005), together with experimentation with new techniques and forms. In the 1970s and 1980s an African focus came to the fore, soon linked with the heightened resistance to the apartheid system and its socio-political limitations, for example in the Afrikaans "betrokke" (involved) and "grens" (border) literary movements of these decades (Van Coller, 2002). Poetry from this period in which the cultural identity markers language (variety), place, land, country and landscape were thematically foregrounded, including works by Peter Blum, PJ Philander, Adam Small, Breyten Breytenbach and Antjie Krog, testified to the fact that earlier association with traditional views of Afrikaans cultural identity views had become increasingly displaced by counter- and (transformative) dis-identification of the former (Viljoen, 2010). Finally, the focus shifts to poem examples from the most recent period in Afrikaans literary history, a period in which sociopolitical aspirations towards democratisation, cultural identity (re)formation and intra- as well as inter-systemic rapprochement have also manifested conspicuously in the field of literature (1990 to the present). Expressions of such trends in Afrikaans poetry are, among other things, several publications of translated poetry from other South African languages into Afrikaans, and vice versa; striving to make more poets from previously marginalised communities heard, for example by way of increasing mainstream publication of, and awards received for, volumes written in socio- and dialects, so that an Afrikaans poetic polyphony has become more noticeable than before; a heterogeneity and fluidity regarding the formation of a contemporary Afrikaans cultural identity, accompanied by a strong awareness of language and place in poems by, among others, Lynthia Julius, Gilbert Gibson and Ronelda Kamfer; and an Afrikaans cultural pessimism, for example in poems by Danie Marais and Breyten Breytenbach, namely because of loss of high language functions for Afrikaans and perceived discrimination against Afrikaans speakers, as well as of a "diaspora" of Afrikaans speakers and a breakdown of "die eertydse ideaal van Afrikanereenheid" (the former ideal of Afrikaner unity; Roos, 2015). From the above-mentioned literary-historical overview, it therefore appears that the mentioned reflected cultural identity markers have taken on increasingly complicated and tension-laden forms in the Afrikaans poetry of the last hundred years, due to political and economic-social developments in both apartheid South Africa and the ANC-ruled democratic dispensation since 1994. It also appears that language(-variety) as a marker of cultural identity has, in the era of the new South African dispensation, become even more noticeable than the mentioned concepts of locality in recent Afrikaans poetry as a factor concerning issues of cultural identity.

Keywords : cultural identity marker; language (variety); space (place, country, land, landscape); Afrikaans poetry 1925-2024; Second Afrikaans Movement; from essentialising collective to individualistic views on cultural identity formation factors; phase of "liberal" nationalism; international aesthetic standards; increasing colloquiality in poetry; period of political resistance and estrangement; literary system isolation; growing focus on Africa; identification/disidentification with Afrikaansness; (satirising) actuality and involved literature; phase of systemic democratisation and inclusivity; socio- and dialectic poetry writing (Afrikaans polyphony); (Afrikaans) cultural identity (re)formation; (Afrikaans) cultural pessimism; "new resistance"; diaspora.

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