The first democratic elections in South Africa, in April 1994, cleared the way for this country to join the British Commonwealth once again. Because of the hindsight made possible by lags in the publishing world, the South African Annual Bibliography for 1992 was meant to be restored to the main body of entries in JCL rather than set in an appendix. (1992 was premature, but it was nevertheless quite appropriate for JCL to wish to use it as a marker of change given the radical political events and declarations of that year.) Unfortunately, the Bibliography for 1992 missed the deadline: a severe budget cut at the University of Cape Town meant the withdrawal of the financial assistance once available to employ student assistance, so the compilation and checking took far longer than usual. Universities underwent budget cuts in 1992 and 1993 partly because of the increasingly severe economic recession and partly because money was being re-routed into social reform (if not squirreled away into pension funds for parliamentarians). This was part of the National Party government’s hasty face-lift prior to participation in the 1994 elections.

South Africa (1992 and 1993)

This article makes the point that autobiography, a genre often considered marginal to the literary canon, can be regarded as a site for examining the impact of nationalism on the construction of gendered and sexual identity. It investigates questions of nationalism, gender and sexuality in the autobiographical texts of Petronella van Heerden and Elsa Joubert. Petronella van Heerden (1887–1975) became the first Afrikaner woman to qualify as a medical doctor and published two short autobiographical texts, Kerssnuitsels (‘Candle Snuffings’) and Die sestiende koppie (‘the Sixteenth Cup’), in the early 1960s. Elsa Joubert (1922–) established herself as one of the most important novelists in Afrikaans literature and published the first part of her autobiography, titled ’n Wonderlike geweld (‘A Wonderful Violence’), in 2005. The article argues that van Heerden’s omission of overt references to her lesbianism can be attributed to the strong, though embattled, position of Afrikaner nationalism at the time her text...

Nationalism, Gender and Sexuality in the Autobiographical Writing of two Afrikaner Women

In this article, the authors propose to analyse the ways in which religion and sexuality are related to one another in three recent novels: (1) Fransi Phillips’s Die donker god (2007), (2) Inga Žolude’s Santa Biblia (2013) and (3) Michel Houellebecq’s Soumission [English translation: Submission ] (2015). In each case, the novels are briefly placed within their respective literary cultures (Afrikaans, Latvian and French) in order to offer a contextually sensitive analysis. After each of the novels has been discussed related to the three related topoi of God, sex and joy, some comparative remarks are offered in conclusion. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: In this contribution, from the theological field of Spirituality Studies, the field of Comparative Literature is approached, seeking to identify aspects of Religiosity and Sexuality from the perspective of Post-Secularity.

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Three three-letter words in three recent novels in three different languages: God, sex and joy

With her shoulder to the wheel: the public life of erika theron (1907-1990)

Petronella van Heerden’s memoirs have received little academic attention. This article aims to contribute to the limited archive of research on her work to highlight women’s involvement in South African and Afrikaner (de/colonial) politics. It will also explore her manipulation of the autobiographical genre to impart what she considered as important to the Afrikaner youth. My investigation considers Van Heerden’s paradoxical shifts between ‘speaking’ and ‘silence’ regarding feminist issues and her lesbian sexual identity. The article illustrates Van Heerden’s employment of certain writing strategies to critique gender inequality implicit within hegemonic and patriarchal discourses - a central issue of her young life that arguably formed her dissident identity. An examination of the ‘opacity’ pertaining to her portrayal of a lesbian identity in the memoirs is also considered.

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'Speaking' and 'Silence' in the Memoirs of Petronella Van Heerden

Summary This article investigates the contribution of Petronella van Heerden in the general context of feminist historiography and in the specific context of feminist literary historiography. This is followed by a discussion of the methodology of feminist historiography, which is an approach that focuses on the experiences and roles of women as told in diaries, autobiographies and oral sources, that have been neglected by traditional historiography. The emphasis of feminist literary historiography on a historical‐critical, rather than an aesthetic‐critical rediscovery of lost women's texts, is explored. In the light of this theoretical framework follows an exploration of the work of Petronella van Heerden ‐ a woman who, at the turn of the century, did groundbreaking work in the field of medicine and contributed significantly to the genre of Afrikaans women's autiobiographical writing. The theoretical exposition is followed by the life‐story of Petronella van Heerden with emphasis on her medical, cultural ...

A Woman Who Made Her Mark in History but Remained Marginalised in the Documents of History: Petronella van Heerden

Summary This essay focuses on the history of short stories by South African women of all races in an attempt to elucidate existing concepts pertaining to race, class and gender. It transpires that the first phase of modern feminist criticism was directed at exposing patriarchal tendencies prevalent in language and literature, while the second phase assessed the meaning and value of writing by women. The writer postulates that a perspective is imperative that both recognises and articulates intrinsic differentiation. Simultaneously, there should be an awareness of existing interrelationships allowing for different identities, divergent politics and dissimilar struggles. “Woman”, per se, cannot be regarded as a stable identity because of diversification related to politics, culture and customs. The writer maintains that differences within ourselves have to be understood first before we can come to grips with differences inherent in others. Differentiation of identity is discussed with reference to three ins...

Annemarié van Niekerk

Papers

A Woman Who Made Her Mark in History but Remained Marginalised in the Documents of History: Petronella van Heerden

Feminist aesthetics: Aspects of race, class and gender in the constitution of South African short fiction by women

In search of traces of textual meaning: A comparative reading