Therefore, this study examines how Van Heerden's nostalgic treatment of the past complements his exploration of the concerns of the present. Van Heerden uses nostalgia in his depictions of the past to address anxieties in the present, while his use of nostalgia (contrary to the stereotype that nostalgia is only sentimental) is strategic and balanced. Van Heerden's political novel, Asbesmiddag (2007), questions the author's uncertain place in the new political landscape.
Of these genres, a focus only on the critical reception of novels - Van Heerden has written eleven10. Van Heerden's "Grensliteratuur", especially the pairing of the stories "My Kubaan" (1983) and "My Afrikaner". One line of assessment is that Van Heerden's explorations of the past are therapeutic and/or conciliatory.
All the above-mentioned treatises are written in Afrikaans, but there are also studies of Van Heerden's work written in English. This study examines the alternative ways in which Van Heerden's novels present the past and provides a better understanding of the problems of the past.
Ancestral Voices
The novel opens with the farm in the care of the third Abel Moolman and his son, CrossAbel, the fourth Abel, who is ready to take over. Included in Riets, under the heading 'shame family' - as can be seen on the chart - are TameBushman and Jan Swaat. They are also marginal voices that would not be given a prominent place in the discourse of the traditional plaasroman.
Van Heerden has used elements of magical realism which have become part of the post-colonial vocabulary. Van Heerden's initial impulse to look back to the traditional plaasroman scene has produced the main line of the Moolman family—the masculine, patriarchal family heads—as mainstream voices. He provided in his will for the "inalienable right [of every Moolmand man and woman] to a share in the produce of the farm" (25), noted Ella, and the ghost of his wife, Magtilt, claimed that "[For sheer manliness no one would ever be able to surpass [him]” (34).
The Riets are, as mentioned, the branch of the family and are also known as the. He directs Meisie Pool, his wife, to visit the source of the spring. The ghosts of Van Heerde thus create a sense of circularity in the history of Toorberg and of the two divided families; the living and the dead continually return to the past.
At the beginning of this section (on nostalgia and characters) I pointed out the strong division between the two sides of the family - the Moolmans and the Riets - as clearly marked in the family tree chart (see page 40). On the (white) side of the Moolman family - the central figures in the narrative - the family has a well-defined origin and a desire for a strong lineage. Toorberg is the name of a mountain, a village and a farm, and the connotations of magic and spells in the word 'toor',32.
Whatever happened between the first and last pages of the novel – or in the lives of the people in Toorberg. That means that FounderAbel, legally and officially, owns the mountain and the spring as part of the farm. The farm is therefore central to the plaasroman and in this novel it is the seat of the Moolman family; it presents a closed and homogeneous environment.
30 Nights in Amsterdam
In a later section, 'The Spectral and the Abject', I will discuss the spectral presence of the Van Gogh brothers in the lives of Zan and Henk.) She is homesick for her former self, for the ghost of the self she had abandoned. In his dealings with space, Van Heerde has again used the conventions of the traditional plaasroman in this novel.
With its Plaasroman foundations, 30 Nights in Amsterdam presents the farm as a place central to the identity of the De Melker family. Grandma/MaOlivier and Henk (the elder) are bound by the social "rules" of the agricultural space, which they accept as known and understandable. But unlike Hank (the elder) and Grandma/MaOlivier, they don't accept the authoritarian forces of the farm.
Henk has some fond memories of the farm - for example, riding with his father on the tractor (51). She is temporarily left in charge of the farm while her brother, Henk (elderly), visits the hospital. She cannot accept his apparent defiance of the farm's authority as a De Melker stronghold.
After her husband's death, Grandma/MaOlivier moved to the Graaff-Reinet house and left responsibility for the farm to her son and heir, Henk (Senior). Both have lasting, nostalgic memories of the house they lived in in Graaff-Reinet. In the following sections, I will select instances of the spectral and abject, where Henk and Zan de Melker will once again be the focus of the investigation.
This sense of isolation is reinforced by the little boy's grave in the corner of his office. This state of the physical and psychological abject is explicitly manifested in the character Zan de Melker: a loathsome yet compelling presence in Henk's life. In the second chapter of the book - the first chapter that has Zan as the focalizer narrator.
Conclusion
In short, Van Heerden's novels have global concerns that make them relevant and interesting to a global readership. Van Heerden's nostalgic approach helps to broaden the appeal of his novels because both his message and mode of communication are globally recognizable, even though the content and context are local. In light of the above conditions, the application of postcolonial nostalgia as a critical tool is effective and enlightening.
The different examples of nostalgia - there are many cases of both restorative and reflective nostalgia - suggest a view of the past that is not polarized or one-dimensional, but rather complex and nuanced. In this light, the value of a nostalgic approach - if it is a reflective nostalgic approach that focuses on longing - is particularly clear when comparing the two novels and examining the development of Van Heerden's view. The time difference of twenty-two years between the publication dates of the novels means that the 'present' in which each of the novels was written — and which provoked a nostalgic return to the past — was different for each of the novels and therefore , lead to different nostalgic foci.
The Afrikaner, Van Heerde's vision indicates, has moved away from a 'closed', ancestral perspective, to share and participate in an environment of global change, an environment that excludes isolation and isolation. Van Heerde's novels are a window into Afrikaner culture, allowing readers to better understand the complexity of the Afrikaner psyche, as well as the developments that continue – albeit less ideologically charged – within Afrikaans/cosmopolitan culture. To extend such a metaphor of development and change, we could thus expand the scope of the research to other texts from Van Heerde's oeuvre.
Also, as I complete this dissertation, the publication of a novel by Van Heerden entitled Gifkaroo (in Afrikaans) and/or Poison Karoo (in English, translated by Isobel Dixon) is imminent (Van Heerden, 2013). It would be interesting to compare the instances of nostalgia from any or all of the aforementioned texts with each other and with Voices of the Ancestors and 30 Nights in Amsterdam; and consider the significance of the publication dates of the three texts separated by a decade each (ie and 2013); furthermore, it would be interesting to examine what prompted the nostalgia at the time of writing in each case. I also conclude that the postcolonial nostalgia in Ancestral Voices and 30 Nights in Amsterdam has added to the novels' broad appeal, in that local content and context have resonated beyond ancestral voices to global voices.
Maqaan Vaan Heerden akka barreessaa Afrikaans fi barreessaa addunyaatti qabu waan mirkanaa'e fakkaata.
Anxiety about aging in An Act of Terror by Andre Brink and Casspirs and Campari's by Etienne van Heerde”, E A R 11:62-72. Unraveling the Rainbow: The Remission of the Nation in Post-Apartheid Literature,” The South Atlantic Quarterly. Everyone is guilty': complicit criticism and the plaasroman tradition in Etienne van Heerdes Toorberg (Ancestral Voices)", Research in African Literatures.
'n Unieke Afrika-magiese realisme met verwysing na die werk van André Brink en Etienne van Heerden. Die wisselwerking van landskap en figure in Etienne van Heerden se plaasroman Die stoetmeester — tr. Die vennootskap van landskap en karakters in die plaasroman Die stoetmeester of Etienne van Heerden.
Die rol van briewe in Etienne van Heerden se In stede van die liefde en 30 nagte in Amsterdam — tr. The Role of Letters in Etienne van Heerden’s In stede van die liefde and 30 Nagte in Amsterdam. Die herskryf van die roman Die swye van Mario Salviati van Etienne van Heerden as ‘n draaiboek, met spesifieke focus op identiteit, hibriditeit en.
Etienne van Heerden se herskrywing van die roman Die swye van Mario Salviati as 'n draaiboek met 'n spesifieke fokus op identiteit, hibriditeit en die grens. Oorsprong en identiteit in Die swye van Mario Salviati (Etienne van Heerden) en De naam vam de Vader (Nelleke Noordevliet) - tr. Geskiedenisvisies in die postmodernistiese literatuur, met verwysing na Etienne van Heerden se Casspirs en Campari en Louis Ferron se Turkenvespers - tr.
Visions of history in postmodernist literature, with reference to Etienne van Heerden's Casspirs en Campari and Louis Ferron's Turkenvespers.
Appendices
