My birthright gives me a servitude on this land

The farm novel within the discourse on land

Dados Bibliográficos

ID20156038
AutoresAmpie Coetzee (University of the Western Cape, autor correspondente)
Ano1996
Volume12
Fascículo1-2
Páginas124-144
Data de publicação1996-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Literary Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0256-4718 • E-ISSN: 1753-5387
EditoraUnisa Press (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.1080/02564719608530130
OpenAlexW2043439688
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas9

From the early nineteenth century to as recently as 1993 narratives that can be characterised as farm novels (a distinct genre in Afrikaans, the “Plaasroman") have been produced consistently in Afrikaans and English canonised prose. The genealogy of this literary form, as well as the meaning of “origin” and “emergence”, is discussed. The discursive formation identified is that of land and the ownership of land; and the farm novel is read as a narrative statement together with land laws, events, social and economic changes and political upheavals within this broader discourse. Why does this type of novel keep recurring? Because a “unity”, a meaning, has never been constructed? A brief historical look at land and possession resulted in the attempt to describe the canonical “unity” of the farm novel for inscription into the discourse on land and power, and to search for the meaning which the writers sought in a continuity with the past. This mapping for meaning would have to take into account the narrator, focalisa‐tion, the didactic, style, the gender of the author, and ultimately also the literary historian's search. Within a wider context than only the literary, the farm novel can be read as part of another discourse which has just begun, that of the dispossessed, constituting once again a search for meaning

Archaeology · Art · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Cultural History and Identity Formation · History · Law · Philosophy · South African History and Culture