Postcolonial Cultural Identity in Recent Afrikaans Literary Texts

Abstract

This article investigates constructions of cultural identity in recent works of short fiction written in Afrikaans. These texts were read within the framework of postcolonial discourse theory, since they were published in the period after the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994 and form part of a discourse of writing back to colonial discourses, including that of apartheid. The framework proposed by Mishra and Hodge ([1993]1994) of an oppositional and complicit postcolonial was combined with insights by Homi Bhabha (1994) and Stuart Hall (1992, [1993]1994) regarding essentialism and hybridity in identity construction to establish to what extent Afrikaans texts of after 1994 can still be read in terms of a so-called “fused postcolonial”, a typification that according to Viljoen (1996) was applicable to the Afrikaans literature prior to 1994.

Opsomming

Hierdie artikel ondersoek konstruksies van kulturele identiteit in onlangse kortverhale in Afrikaans. Die tekste is gelees binne die raamwerk van postkoloniale diskoersteorie, aangesien hulle gepubliseer is in die tydperk ná die eerste demokratiese verkiesings in Suid-Afrika in 1994 en omdat hulle deel uitmaak van ’n diskoers waarin daar teruggeskryf word na koloniale diskoerse, insluitende apartheid. Mishra en Hodge ([1993]1994) se voorgestelde raamwerk van opposisionele en medepligtige post-kolonialisme is gekombineer met insigte van Homi Bhabha (1994) en Stuart Hall (1992, [1993]1994) rakende essensialisme en hibriditeit in identiteitskonstruksie, ten einde vas te stel in watter mate Afrikaanse tekste van ná 1994 steeds gelees kan word in terme van ’n sogenaamde “saamgestelde postkolonialisme” wat volgens Viljoen (1996) toepasbaar was op Afrikaanse literatuur van voor 1994.