Abstract
Traveling light and attentively (on occasion): mystics in three novels by Lettie Viljoen/Ingrid Winterbach By means of references to mystics, the author Lettie Viljoen/ Ingrid Winterbach creates a framework within which characters who exhibit mystic tendencies – namely Fonny Alexander and Boetie Kareltjie (“Buller se plan”) and the master (“Landskap met vroue en slang”) – can be compared. This matrix activates a number of issues: the place of women within a religious-cultural system and the power they wield within such a system by resorting to mysticism, engagement with existing systems of authority and the possibility of exerting power by withdrawing from such systems, the traditional opposition between physicality and spiritual purity, and the issue of martyrdom. Against this backdrop Fonny’s obliteration of her own identity in an attempt to cope with trauma is contrasted with the master’s approach of experiencing and accepting change and attempting to learn from it. Ultimately it is argued that there is an attempt to reject a type of mysticism that pretends to offer power to its proponents while actually disempowering them.
Highlights
By means of references to mystics, the author Lettie Viljoen/ Ingrid Winterbach creates a framework within which characters who exhibit mystic tendencies – namely Fonny Alexander and Boetie Kareltjie (“Buller se plan”) and the master (“Landskap met vroue en slang”) – can be compared
Om lig en aandagtig te reis ... romans van Lettie Viljoen/Ingrid Winterbach attempt to cope with trauma is contrasted with the master’s approach of experiencing and accepting change and attempting to learn from it
It is argued that there is an attempt to reject a type of mysticism that pretends to offer power to its proponents while disempowering them
Summary
Lettie Viljoen/Ingrid Winterbach se werk bevraagteken en ondermyn dikwels die patriargale bestel. Hierdie artikel sal aandag skenk aan die wyse waarop hierdie ondermyning en bevraagtekening bewerkstellig word deurdat Viljoen/Winterbach mistici oor wie se bestaan daar ’n mate van geskiedkundige sekerheid is en mistici wat slegs literêre karakters is, insluit in haar werk. Na ’n aantal inleidende opmerkings oor die posisie van vroue binne die Christelike bestel, waaruit Viljoen/Winterbach die meeste van haar “heiliges” leen, sal ’n raamwerk uiteengesit word waarbinne vroulike seksualiteit, sensualiteit, geestelikheid en magsposisies in heroënskou geneem word. Die raamwerk wat Viljoen/Winterbach skep, moet teen hierdie historiese agtergrond, en veral teen die inherent ambivalente posisie van vroulike mistici, gekontekstualiseer word. In die afdeling wat volg, sal aandag geskenk word aan die manier waarop Viljoen/Winterbach die ervarings van werklike mistici in haar werk inbou om ’n raamwerk te skep waarvolgens vroulike seksualiteit, sensualiteit, geestelikheid en magsposisies in heroënskou geneem word
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