Debates not "out of a clear blue sky" - the long-term causes of the general strike the 1925 coal crisis and the nine-month respite "the wonderful response and the organisation we had" - the nine days the settlement the return to work and the problem of the coal lock-out the consequences of the General Strike - a watershed in industrial relations?.

The General Strike, 1926

Buried narratives : representations of pregnancy and burial in South African farm novels

Selon Webb-Mitchell (1995 : 219), homme est ne avec la « capacite et le desir d'exprimer et recevoir des histoires ». Une des actions humaines les plus fondamentales dans l'existence de l'homme est de dire, interpreter, et raconter de nouveau l'interpretation dans les mots, volontairement, sous forme d'histoires. C'est un eternel, se developper en spirales et un processus socialement construit. Le « recit est crucial dans la vie humaine d'arrangement pour tous que nous soyons, et tous ce que nous faisons, et tout ce que nous pensons et la sensation est base sur des histoires ; toutes les deux nos histoires personnelles et histoires de notre communaute significative » (1995:215 de Webb-Mitchell). Slabbert (1999 : 49-51) declarer qu'une identite officielle d'Afrikaner a existe jusqu'a 1990, qui etait principalement du a un recit principal a construit autour de l'adhesion d'eglise, de l'engagement a la puissance politique et de l'adhesion au parti, comme l'attachement aux organismes culturels tels que le lien de Broeder. En resume on peut affirmer que l'Afrikaner a perdu son recit principal en vue de l'identite d'Afrikaner, et qu'un certain nombre d'approches a l'identite d'Afrikaner sont suivies chez l'Afrikaner se range. Comme indique, la desintegration du recit de maitre d'Afrikaner a pour mener a la promotion de la question si les recits alternatifs et plus petits d'Afrikaner se sont developpes, comme expose par Lyotard (1984 : 3-16). De la litterature elle semble que la reponse est « oui ».

An Anthropological Perspective on Afrikaner Narrative and Myths

Literature of the struggle in South Africa existed long before restrictions on publications were officially lifted. While most was in manuscript form and/or exsisted orally, some did find their way to the bookseller's shelve, feigning innocence or otherwise leading a secret life similar to that of workers of the struggle. In this article the secret life of a worker of the struggle and its effect on ordinary people is reconstructed from their memories, skilfully recorded in Maake's multiple narrative perspective. Thus literature of the struggle continues as unrestricted mainstream marking a significant rupture with past literary history.

Kweetsa ya pelo ya motho (NP Maake): Narrative of human behaviour in political turmoil

Waardes as kultuuraspek van die Afrikaner

Summary This paper explores constructs of identity and difference in various South African texts of the nineteenth and early twentieth century by relating these texts to the development of print, economic transformations and historical events. Investigating constructs of identity and difference is important because of the emphasis placed on these constructs by the discourse of apartheid.

Identity and difference: Some nineteenth and early twentieth century South African texts

Summary This paper explores the forgotten legacy of white labour and socialist culture from the first two decades of the twentieth century in South Africa. It investigates the strikes, marches and processions in terms of carnival and an oral and public culture in which the trade union leader or party leader as orator, on the one hand, and the The Red Flag as song and banner, on the other, played an important role. The focus then shifts to the newspapers and the doggerel which appeared in the newspapers with special emphasis on the themes of empire, civilisation and reason. The paper concludes that much of the spontaneity which marked this popular movement, was destroyed because of the increasing centralised control by the Comintern and directives from Moscow.

“Volcano needing constant watching”: South African white labour and socialist culture 1900–1924

Summary Using several commentaries on my study Southern African Literatures (including those of panellists at the Conference “Literary Studies at the Crossroads") as a point of departure, the article attempts to consider ‐ by analogy ‐ the question of whose story, perhaps whose identity, is relevant to South Africa of the 1990s. It is argued that literary studies ‐ indeed, cultural studies ‐ needs to pursue methods of comparison and translation in breaking beyond the linguistic‐ethnic enclaves of the past towards complex understandings of what might constitute a South African identity.

Literary historiography / Literatuurgeskiedskrywing

Summary In this article I investigate the role of the father within nationalism by analysing two obscure plays, Padbrekers (1947) and Legende (1942) by J.F.W. Grosskopf. Through the use of psycho‐analysis I have come to the conclusion that nationalism constitutes a melancholy‐related guilt reaction to the death of the father. Synonymous with the death of the father is the experience of the apocalyptic downfall of the fatherland as a result of capitalist expansion and the concomitant materialism. Underlying this experience is the inability to form a libidinal relationship with the world (as object). The nationalist feels threatened by the materialist world‐picture which implies an object‐relationship with the world.

Johan van Wyk

Papers

Identity and difference: Some nineteenth and early twentieth century South African texts

“Volcano needing constant watching”: South African white labour and socialist culture 1900–1924

Literary historiography / Literatuurgeskiedskrywing

The father in two Afrikaner nationalist plays by J.F.W. Grosskopf