Abstract
Evaluations of the poetry of C.M. van den Heever This article traces the assessments of the value of the poetic work by the Afrikaans author C.M. van den Heever since the second quarter of the twentieth century. Appreciation of him as poet mainly revolves around his role as transitional figure in the important renewal of Afrikaans poetry in the 1930s, as can be seen from two rather divergent critiques by D.J. Opperman (completed in 1946 and 1952, respectively). An outstanding contribution by Van den Heever in this regard is the introduction of elements of Dutch poetry from around the turn of the nineteenth century to the Afrikaans literary world. A critic such as T.T. Cloete, in an article dating from 1957, convincingly argues that aspects of Van den Heever’s poetic style and technique, which other critics had sometimes judged harshly, are largely functional in co-communicating the specific (passively transcendental) attitude towards life and reality conveyed in Van den Heever’s work. Local and international shifts in the dominant literary approaches, however, have caused singularly confessional poetry – such as the bulk of Van den Heever’s poetic output – to be increasingly marginalised since the mid- 1930s. In this respect he shares the fate of Dutch poet A. Roland Holst, whose poetry was influential in shaping the characteristics of Van den Heever’s.
Highlights
In dié artikel word die waardepeilings van C.M. van den Heever se poësie sedert die tweede kwart van die twintigste eeu nagespeur
’n Ander prominente invloed in Van den Heever se gedigte wat via sy belangstelling in die Nederlandse letterkunde op hom ingewerk het, en waarin hy veral W.E.G
Louw s’n tel, bestaan daar weinig gedigte in Afrikaans wat as sensitivisties van aard bestempel kan word
Summary
C.M. van den Heever se prosateurskap word vandag veel belangriker geag as sy digterskap (Du Plooy, 1999:658; Kannemeyer, 1998:34). Wat egter hier relevant is, is dat Opperman in hierdie opstel eintlik heel negatief oor Van den Heever se digwerk oordeel – in elk geval negatiewer as in sy proefskrif, wat in Junie 1952 voltooi en in 1953 deur Nasionale Boekhandel gepubliseer is onder die bekende titel Digters van Dertig (Steyn, 1998:661). In laasgenoemde laat Opperman die kollig val op die vernuwing wat Dertig in die Afrikaanse poësie teweeggebring het, en wanneer hy dan ’n hoofstuk wy aan C.M. van den Heever, noem hy hom “Die eerste Dertiger”. Die indruk is egter onteenseglik dat hy hier, in die beklemtoning van die vernuwende elemente met betrekking tot die Afrikaanse poësie, op grond van literatuurbeskoulike oorwegings (wat Lotman, 1977:112-114, as ’n estetika van opposisie sou beskryf) ’n veel gunstiger oordeel oor Van den Heever se verskuns vel as in die opstel oor die vroulik-Oosterse ingesteldheid in sy werk. Louw as die eintlike eerste Dertiger te laat uitstaan (Steyn, 1998:689)
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