Michiel Heyns’s Lost Ground: The white man’s sense of identity and place in a decolonised Africa and a democratic South Africa
Literator
| Field | Value | |
| Title | Michiel Heyns’s Lost Ground: The white man’s sense of identity and place in a decolonised Africa and a democratic South Africa Michiel Heyns se Lost Ground: Die blanke man se sin vir identiteit en plek in ‘n gedekoloniseerde Afrika en ‘n demokratiese Suid-Afrika | |
| Creator | Lenz, Renate | |
| Description | In Lost Ground, Michiel Heyns portrays the former white settlers’ position and experience in South Africa, Africa and Europe after the overturn of South Africa’s apartheid regime. An analysis of the novel illustrates that the legacy of the colonisation of Africa and apartheid in South Africa still shapes the settler descendants’ perception of self and the other and the formers’ place in South Africa and Africa. After the electoral victory of the African National Congress, contemporary white South African men, as exemplified by the English-speaking male protagonist who features in the novel, tend to dissociate themselves from the country and the African continent as home. Although the original colonisers’ experience of alienation and ambivalence about apartheid has been widely depicted, the significance of this experience in relation to white South African male identity has not been fully explored in a study of Heyns’s Lost Ground, principally as regards the novel’s detective narrative framework and the counterdiscursive technique of intertextual referencing that implies other interpretative possibilities. Lost Ground will be critically analysed in terms of the central character’s experience of space and place, and the influence of these paradigms on Peter Jacobs as he makes strides towards abandoning historical/racial restrictions and locating his identity in people. In Lost Ground (2011) beeld Michiel Heyns die posisie en ervaring van die voormalige blanke setlaars in Suid-Afrika, Afrika en Europa uit na die omverwerping van Suid-Afrika se apartheidsregering. ‘n Ontleding van die roman illustreer dat die nalatenskap van die kolonisasie van Afrika en apartheid in Suid-Afrika steeds die setlaarafstammelinge se begrip van self en die ander asook hul plek in Suid-Afrika en Afrika beïnvloed. Na die verkiesingsoorwinning van die African National Congress neig hedendaagse blanke Suid-Afrikaanse mans, soos vergestalt deur die Engelssprekende manlike hoofkarakter wat in die roman figureer, om hulself te dissosieer van die land en die Afrika-kontinent as tuiste. Alhoewel die oorspronklike koloniseerders se ervaring van vervreemding en ambivalensie oor apartheid wyd uitgebeeld word, is die betekenis van hierdie ervaring met verwysing na wit Suid-Afrikaanse manlike identiteit nog nie ten volle nagevors in ‘n studie van Heyns se Lost Ground nie, hoofsaaklik met betrekking tot die roman se speurvertellingsraamwerk en die teen-diskursiewe tegniek van intertekstuele verwysings wat ander interpretatiewe moontlikhede impliseer. Lost Ground word krities ontleed ooreenkomstig die hoofkarakter se ervaring van ruimte en plek, en die invloed van hierdie paradigmas op Peter Jacobs terwyl hy poog om historiese/rassebeperkings te oorkom en sy identiteit te vind in mense. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS | |
| Date | 2017-03-27 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/lit.v38i1.1329 | |
| Source | Literator; Vol 38, No 1 (2017); 10 pages Literator; Vol 38, No 1 (2017); 10 pages 2219-8237 0258-2279 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1329/2291
https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1329/2290
https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1329/2292
https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1329/2283
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