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

Abstract

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 and political contributions. Her autobiographical works, Kerssnuitels (1962) and Die sestiende koppie (1965), are then examined from the following literary perspectives: as autobiographies, as examples of regional literature, as historical‐sociological writings, as realist and magic‐realist writings and finally as feminist writings.