Afrikaans literature and (metropolitan) postcolonial theory: Interrogations from the Margin

Abstract

Summary This article criticises proposals made by Rosemary Jolly about the manner in which postapartheid culture in South Africa should be approached to advance the creation of a postcolonial future. Although I provisionally agree with her that binary thinking should be avoided, I criticise the representation of Afrikaans literature on which part of her argument is based. The most important objection is that Jolly can see a role for certain kinds of writers only, namely dissident ones. I show how writers that I categorise as nondissident, nonnationalist, have already given form to the kind of culture envisaged by Jolly.