Die problematiek van onthou: Die proses van herinnering in Antjie Krog se Country of My Skull

Abstract

How does one deal with the past in the creation of a new myth and what role does memory play in this process of recreation? Antjie Krog’s novel, Country of My Skull (2002), uses the South African past in this search of a new myth after the end of the old Apartheid myth. In this article the problem with truth and memory is investigated, where memory is described as subjective and unstable. As a result of the subjective and human nature of memory, the fallibility of memory is pointed out. In the same way as memory, truth is also dependent on perception and personal experience, also set in the past and is therefore subject to the problem of memory. It is only through the action of remembering that rectification and justice can take place and, in the end, can lead to reconciliation. Within the context of this essay, this process of remembering takes place through literature and the action of writing as the processing of the trauma of the past is investigated.

Opsomming

Hoe word daar met die verlede omgegaan in die skeppingsproses van ’n nuwe mite en watter rol speel herinnering in hierdie herskeppingsproses? Antjie Krog se Country of My Skull (2002) gebruik die Suid-Afrikaanse verlede in ’n soektog na ’n nuwe mite na die einde van die ou Apartheidsmite. In hierdie artikel word die problematiek van waarheid en herinnering ondersoek, waar herinnering as subjektief en onstabiel beskryf word. As gevolg van die subjektiewe en menslike aard van herninnering, word die feilbaarheid van die menslike geheue uitgewys. Op dieselfde wyse as herinnering, is waarheid ook afhanklik van persepsie en persoonlike ervaring, ook gesetel in die verlede en is dus ook onderhewig aan die problematiek van herinnering. Dit is slegs deur die aksie van onthou wat regstelling en geregtigheid kan plaasvind en uiteindelik kan lei tot versoening. Hierdie proses van onthou vind binne die konteks van hierdie essay plaas deur die literatuur, en die skryfproses as verwerking van die trauma van die verlede word ondersoek.