Ideology and Utopia in the Early Van Wyk Louw: A Preliminary Investigation
Abstract
Focussing on N.P. van Wyk Louw’s first two collections of critical essays, Berigte te velde (1939) and Lojale verset (1939), this article considers Louw’s recontextualising of the concepts “nation”, “nationalism” and “national literature”. Louw’s distinction between a “national” and “colonial” literature is examined in terms of Paul Ricoeur’s oppositional analysis of ideology and utopia in his Lectures on Ideology and Utopia (1986). It is argued that these two sets of binary oppositions, supported by subordinate dualisms such as individual/nation and local/universal, formed the intellectual and structural premise of Louw’s redefinition of the established Afrikaans critical and creative discourse of the thirties.
Opsomming
Met as middelpunt N.P. van Wyk Louw se eerste twee versamelings kritiese opstelle, Berigte te velde (1939) en Lojale verset (1939), ondersoek hierdie artikel Louw se her-kontekstualisering van die konsepte “volk”, “nasionalisme” en “nasionale letterkunde”. Louw se onderskeid tussen ‘n “nasionale” en “koloniale” letterkunde word bestudeer met spesifieke verwysing na Paul Ricoeur se opposisionele analise van ideologie en utopie in sy Lectures on Ideology and Utopia (1986). Daar word aangevoer dat hierdie twee stelle binêre opposisies, ondersteun deur onderskikkende teenstellings soos individu/volk en lokaal/universeel, die intellektuele en strukturele uitgangspunt van Louw se herdefiniëring van die gevestigde Afrikaanse kritiese en skeppende diskoers van die jare dertig gevorm het.
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