n Mosaïek van sitate: André P. Brink se Inteendeel as historiografiese interteks

de Vries, Izak Daniël

n Mosaïek van sitate: André P. Brink se Inteendeel as historiografiese interteks

Thesis / Dissertation

1999

Abstract

[pg 58,98,139 is missing] lnteendeel (On the Contrary) does its title and mottoes proud by challenging the status quo surrounding the representation of historical occurrences. The text is an exhibition of the way historiography is created and fictionalised. It masquerades as an ordinary historical novel, but is not A number of postmodernist strategies are employed to draw the reader's attention to the "fraudulent" nature of the book. Chapter one explores the theoretical backdrop against which lnteendeel is to be read. It also lays the foundation for all other discussions in this text. There will be a clear emphasis on Linda Hutcheon's views on historiographic metafiction as a human construct, Brain McHale's research regarding the shift ·of the dominant, Jacques Derrida's deconstruction theory wherein the splintering of the "Logos" is celebrated, Brian McHale's study on postmodernist fiction and Roland Barthes's theories on the multivalence of codes. Chapter two investigates the way narrative time and the lack of chronology is used as delaying tactics to hamper the reader-' s experience of the-narrated time - a strategy to draw the reader into becoming a fellow creator of the text rather than a merely passive receiver of information. A brief comparison between the English and the Afrikaans texts produces more evidence of the narrator's purposeful "tampering" with the temporal order in the two novels. Chapter three explores the characterisation in Brink's book, by comparing it to the other novels written on Barbier, namely 'n Man om te hardloop and Wydsbeen, as well as the original material written in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The characters occurring in lnteendeel, from the seemingly historically correct Barbier and Allemann to the historically misplaced Joan of Arc, the fictional Don Quixote, to the mysterious Dora Bothma, happen to be a series of codes built up from a large amount of intertexts rather than attempts at being believable historical constructs. In chapter four the spatial settings are investigated. Together with the main character, Barbier, the reader is taken on a series of journeys to historiographical zones created around the Cape. These zones used be places where cultures and ideologies met and clashed a long time ago. In this border region a rich historiographic treasure occurred from which Brink borrowed generously and purposefully. This chapter also investigates the way the historical texts, as well as earlier Brink novels like Looking on Darkness and An Instant in the Wind, recurs throughout lnteendeel. The last chapter supplies a brief summary of the findings contained in the thesis. In conclusion: lnteendeel is a playful text, inviting the reader to join in a creative process where the ability to create through narrative is given preference over historical correctness. This thesis accepts the invitation, but limits its own narrative scope with a taut, theoretical first chapter, and a firm decision to concentrate the research on Inteendeel, with special reference to its English sister text, the other two novels on Barbier and the historical documents listed at the back of lnteendeel. It does, however, acknowledge many of the novel's other intertexts over the course of its own creative involvement with Inteendeel.

Keywords

Afrikaans and Netherlandic Studies

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