Afrikaner nationalism, print culture and the ‘capacity to aspire’: the imaginative powers of popular fiction for young readers

Abstract

In studies on Afrikaner nationalism, there is a paucity of research on the interrelationship between print culture and nationalism, more so with regard to the field of children's and youth literature. This article examines the popular Keurboslaan series, initially comprising 20 titles, which was written for young Afrikaans readers and first published between 1941 and 1961. These were crucial years of Afrikaner nationalist mobilization and consolidation. Following Benedict Anderson and Arjun Appadurai, this article suggests that this series, partly because of its designation as popular children's literature, but more importantly as a result of the discursive strategies offered by the form and deployed by its author, was one of the avenues by which ideas associated with Afrikaner nationalism circulated more widely and an Afrikaner nationalist imaginary was popularized. However, the terms and manner in which Afrikaner ‘identity’ is represented in these popular but marginal texts differed markedly from the dominant constructions in formal or mainstream nationalist discourse as well as belletrist literature. Stella Blakemore's ability to tap into the need for escapist fiction in a way that also recognized (and produced) the capacity of some young readers to aspire, made possible identification with an Afrikaner nationalist world that was suffused with personal aspiration and desire. In Keurboslaan, the imaginative power of fiction conjures a form of belonging oriented towards the future; its discourse is that of modernity; its agent is the professional classes.