No abstract available.

The relationship between khôra and mysticism in M.M Walter’s poem ‘Die groot stilte’. In view of M.M. Walters’ recent death (28 Julie 2020), it is timeous to pay homage to him by focusing on a lesser-known aspect of his poetry, namely mysticism. This article aims to demonstrate the relationship between the mysterious and enigmatic Platonic concept khôra and mysticism, and to subsequently indicate how this is expressed in the poem ‘Die groot stilte’ (in the volume Sprekende van God). Walters (1929–2020) was mainly a satirist, but also a poet of religious verse. However, he differentiated himself as an unconventional religious poet and alternative seeker of God. He opposed church dogma and believed that Christ should be sought in ways that go beyond simply accepting the church’s teachings. The article opens with a brief survey of the mystical tradition in Afrikaans poetry, after which the poetry of Walters is briefly described. Subsequently, the reception of his anthology Sprekende van God is discussed. After an introductory discussion of the khôra concept, his poem Die groot stilte is analysed in detail, and the relationship between khôra and mysticism explained. Pieter G.R. de Villiers (2020) maintains that Walters created striking poems with mystical content, and that he was often misunderstood by the clergy and orthodox believers as an enemy of religion and the church. Countering this, De Villiers observes that Walters was driven to seek a genuine, credible spirituality. De Villiers finds it unfortunate that this aspect of Walters’ poetry is not sufficiently recognised.Contribution: Based on the analysis and interpretation of ‘Die groot stilte’, the conclusion is reached that Walters can indeed be described as a mystical poet and that his mystical poetry can be regarded as part of the relatively small yield in mystical Afrikaans literature. This article adds to the equally small corpus of academic literature on mysticism in Afrikaans.

Far from the world, the island is the world: The island ecotones of the Indian Ocean between creolisation and liquid borders. Due to their specific geography and plural histories, the island societies of the south-western Indian Ocean are characterised by a considerable anthropological and cultural complexity. Colonial regimes and migratory and diasporic phenomena have strongly marked these territories on the oceanic borders as well as their social construction and particular ethno-racial composition. Island-as-utopia, island-as-prison, island-as-refuge, island-as-stopover, island-as-relation, island-as-world … there is no shortage of notions to imagine and describe these heterogeneous places where the realities, potentialities, and limits of (post)colonial cultural plurality are negotiated. For behind the tropical dreams and the exaltations of harmonious cohabitation (vivre-ensemble) appear the precariousness of the island condition, the ambiguity of identity, and the difficulty of anchoring oneself in and expressing oneself from a place which continues to be significantly shaped by its relations with the outside (the old and new ‘metropolises’ and places of reference, other islands). To what extent can the specificities of the Indian Ocean islands – this other ‘archipelago’ less visible than its Caribbean counterpart – inform and nourish continental territories, France, the world? Are they models of ethical solidarity? Antidotes to identity-based blockages? Laboratories of democratic thought? Creative prefigurations of the future? It may well be. However, according to certain thinkers, writers and artists from these spaces, the islands and archipelagos – far from being the idealisations of a vitalist and blissful community (en-commun) – prove to be above all plural and conflicting contact zones. They emerge as complex ecotones that allow us to imagine and think about the challenges of our contemporary societies and cultures from the ‘margins’, the interstices, the unstable borders.

An analysis of the use of demonstratives in isiZulu (izabizwana zokukhomba) has shown that they go beyond the known deictic functions of demonstratives as used in other languages like English. In isiZulu, demonstratives tend to also denote specificity, a function normally performed by the definite article in English. This article, therefore, compares the functions of articles in English to those of demonstratives in isiZulu, with the aim to demonstrate the similarities in terms of use between the two languages. This added function of demonstratives, it is argued, may account for some of the errors in English second language learners’ use of articles, as evidenced by data from written exercises of learners whose first language is isiZulu. The findings suggest that second language learners of English tend to confuse articles because of the differences between the two languages, especially during their (learners’) interlanguage stage.Contribution: The article highlights a significant difference in the use of demonstratives between English and isiZulu due to the added function of specificity in isiZulu demonstrative (isabizwana sokukhomba) which is performed by the definite article in English. It also demonstrates how, without an article system, isiZulu can convey meaning like any language with an article system.

No abstract available.

Literature is very important when referring to problems experienced by individuals, talking about life and life around individuals. Though interesting and entertaining stories can be told, various forms of stories can stimulate and inspire readers, especially when conveying human values through the means of ‘character’ (Alvinindyta 2018:8, 10). The depiction of fictional characters is a pivotal literary element in exposing and informing a target audience of an identified social issue. Therefore, the fictional characters depicted within literary texts may be used to allow more individuals to become better acquainted with the gender identities that form part of cultures and traditions in heteronormative societies (Uys 2020:3; Uys, Romylos Nel 2021:3; The Other Foundation 2016:23). This article aims to show how Brent Hartinger depicts queer characters in his 2004 queer text Geography Club. Entin’s 2013 film adaptation is also included to carry out a comparative analysis of the novel and the film, adding more depth to the article and broadening the scope. The aim of the investigation on which the article is based was to allow more readers to become better acquainted with gender identities that form part of cultures and traditions in heteronormative societies. A qualitative approach was followed, using hermeneutics as the strategy of inquiry. The conceptual and theoretical framework was queer characters as a queer literary element, whilst the data generation method was document analysis. The main findings were that there are four possible types of queer characters (Cart Jenkins 2006) presented that may be applied to depict fictional characters of a queer literary work, and Hartinger (2004) and Entin (2013) depict their queer characters accordingly to inform readers and possibly change ingrained perceptions of various gender identities.

Sorrow is perhaps the usual response to the disappearance of things into ‘nowhere’. The use of blank space in the poetry of E. E. Cummings and William Carlos Williams indicates an alternative response: to accept and even celebrate this. With a view to exploring this alternative response to disappearance, appearance, and nowhere, the article reads blank space in the little man poem and air poem (Cummings), as well as the obsolete rose poem and red wheelbarrow poem (Williams) – I use these labels because the poems are untitled. The article closely examines the tensions that these poems create between their printed black fragments and the blank space within which these are located. It finds that the former mimes being, existence, and ‘something’, whilst the latter mimes unbeing, nowhere, and nothing. The poems present the latter condition as vibrant, embodying the place from where being emerges, ablaze with itself. The blank space embodies this vibrancy in the poems examined; the poets use various devices to heighten the perception of this. For instance, Cummings’ little man poem signifies the reconnection of a modern subject, a little man, and the huge and dynamic earth by rejuvenating an acute sense of now-here in terms of nowhere, as mimed by breaking a phrase across the poem’s final two stanzas, inviting blank space into the poem on an accentuated level. A similar textual event occurs in the tracing of a rose petal’s paradoxical line between something and nothing within Williams’ obsolete rose poem, where the determiner ‘the’ is followed abruptly by the fecund nothingness of blank space. At its conclusion, the piece synthesises these and other findings to argue that the use of blank space in these poems boils down to a node of modern ecopoetic maturation: the poems orient themselves to and within the dynamic earth anew, marking radical acceptance of being on the earth in terms of unbeing.

Literator publishes research articles and essays on linguistics and literature in general, but focuses in particular on the (comparative) study of South African languages and literatures and other cultural phenomena across language, media and cultural boundaries (examples of topics would be: different manifestations of Post-Modernism, the interaction between visual arts and literature, the representation of the South African War in literature, language attitudes and language policy).

Literator publishes research articles and essays on linguistics and literature in general, but focuses in particular on the (comparative) study of South African languages and literatures and other cultural phenomena across language, media and cultural boundaries (examples of topics would be: different manifestations of Post-Modernism, the interaction between visual arts and literature, the representation of the South African War in literature, language attitudes and language policy).

Literator publishes research articles and essays on linguistics and literature in general, but focuses in particular on the (comparative) study of South African languages and literatures and other cultural phenomena across language, media and cultural boundaries (examples of topics would be: different manifestations of Post-Modernism, the interaction between visual arts and literature, the representation of the South African War in literature, language attitudes and language policy).