Memory, history and oblivion in &lt;i&gt;Horrelpoot&lt;/i&gt; by Eben Venter

M Postma,M.N Slabbert

doi:10.4102/lit.v29i2.115

Abstract

“Horrelpoot” by Eben Venter joins the ranks of other postapartheid Afrikaans literature that reflects different sides of memory, history and guilt. This article explores the different constructs of memory – laced with rich Jungian archetypal images – that are portrayed in “Horrelpoot”. Drawing on Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, “Horrelpoot” sketches the protagonist, Marlouw’s journey from the West (Australia) to the “dark” continent (Africa), and his ancestral farm, “Ouplaas” in South Africa. The article elaborates on Marlouw’s journey, which, at a deeper level, is nothing but a Jungian journey towards individuation, a journey into the deepest and archaic level of his own psyche. In the final instance, “Horrelpoot” reminds us that in a century of forgetting, memory persists, and that Marlouw’s journey could be a collective one which may guide white South Africans to face their own deep and dark past and the horror that lies at the bottom of their history.

Highlights

He wanted no more than justice ... he seemed to stare at me ... with that wide and immense stare embracing, condemning, loathing all the universe
Having “escaped” the tragedy and devastation of events unfolding in South Africa after they had left the country, Marlouw does not feel at home in Australia
The various memory constructs in Horrelpoot are finely interwoven with vivid jungian archetypal images, the latter in existence in all people since time immemorial

Summary

Introduction

He wanted no more than justice ... he seemed to stare at me ... with that wide and immense stare embracing, condemning, loathing all the universe. Eben Venter’s recent novel, Horrelpoot (2006), sketches the return and attempted intervention of the white protagonist, Marlouw, from Australia to his ancestral farm in South Africa, ostensively to find his sister’s son, Koert. His native country seems to be disintegrating in many ways, and he sees drought, ruin and devastation all around him, while his encounters with the Africans who used to work for his father, to whom Marlouw had entrusted their once-prestigious farm, are extremely unsettling. Horrelpoot, similar to Heart of darkness, is a psychological tour de force of one man’s journey into an archaic sphere within his own psyche. An investigation of the manner in which memory translates into history falls outside the scope of this article, as the focus will be on a jungian reading of the text and the extent to which Marlouw’s memories influence his progression towards individuation

Constructions of memory in Horrelpoot

Confronting the “shadow”

Conclusion