Between Languages: Athol Fugard and/in Afrikaans

Abstract

Summary A study of dramatic language in a playwright's oeuvre should, according to Vimala Herman (1995), not only focus on the interactive and interactional uses of dialogue, but should also include a discussion of the wider cultural context in which these plays are situated. In this article I use the above viewpoint as an approach to study dramatic language in Fugard's oeuvre. A short analysis is firstly given of how the “mechanics” of everyday conversation is demonstrated in a particular scene in Fugard's Boesman and Lena (1978). The main focus of the article is, however, a discussion of a broader issue, namely the socio-political context of Fugard's use of Afrikaans in a large section of his English plays; his own relationship with Afrikaans, and the ironic reversal of how Afrikaans and English audiences perceive his plays today.