Abstract
‘Who let out the secret?’ – Sexual identity in Johann Nell’s farm novel Sondag op ’n voëlplaas [Sunday on a bird farm] (2013). The statement of the narrator in Johann Nell’s farm novel Sondag op ’n voëlplaas (2013) about his self-quest amongst ‘wild, fierce and erect ostrich necks’ (pp. 244–245), alludes to his doubts about his sexual identity. The apparent latent homosexual is strengthened by the epigraph, a direct translation of an excerpt from Calaf’s aria ‘Nessun Dorma’ from Puccini’s opera Turandot. In the traditional Afrikaans farm novel, the narrator is usually a third-person (auctorial) narrator. The use of a first-person narrator in Nell’s novel emphasises his deviation from the (stereo)typical traits and attributes of the traditional farm novel. The subjectivity inherent to the firstperson narration (the I-as-protagonist) implies that what is represented in this novel is the main character’s version of reality and his response to, especially, the farm as bastion of masculinity and traditional socio-political beliefs. Based on the above, this article takes as its point of departure the hypothetical assumption that the epigraph has an important part to play in the interpretation of the secret in that the implied or abstract author, by means of a parodying perspective, highlights a specific vision regarding the thematic significance. The epigraph not only reinforces the idea of a lack of identity and the idea that the ‘true’ identity could perhaps be a homosexual disposition, but also that it is simultaneously an etiological journey to the original opera libretto. In its turn, the libretto can be traced back to the Greek myth of Oedipus and the sphinx. By both discussing the intertexts and analysing the narrator’s language usage, his disposition and his tale of the (traumatised) self, his sexual identity is scrutinised.
Highlights
Original Research ‘Wie het die geheim verklap?’ – Seksuele identiteit in Johann Nell se plaasroman Sondag op ’n voëlplaas (2013)
Alhoewel hierdie motief nooit uitgebou word nie, dui die frase ‘maar my geheim is in my weggesteek, die naam waarvan niemand sal weet nie’ uit die motto, volgens Van Coller (2014:183) op ’n latent homo-erotiese instelling
In die beskrywing van die plaas as ’n mitiese ruimte met heldefigure binne ’n patriargale plasing waarin erfopvolging oorheers, is die puriteinse ideaal van Afrikanermanlikheid tot uitdrukking gebring in die beeld van die ‘eenvoudige, eerlike, standvastige, godsdienstige en hardwerkende boer’ (Du Pisani 2001:158)
Summary
Kryger is later in die twintigste eeu aangevul deur beelde van die Afrikanerman as gesofistikeerde stedeling en sportman (Du Pisani 2001; Visagie 2004:37). Die verteller behoort tot die gerepresenteerde wêreld en kan binne die werk deur die abstrakte outeur geïroniseer word (kyk Van Coller 1980:18–20). Alhoewel Nell (2014) dit ontken, is daar dus tog aanduidings van grensoorskryding deurdat die werklike outeur, deur middel van subtiele manipulering, self as karakter in die literêre werk aanwesig is. Soos in die verhale van die sfinks en van Turandot, is daar in Nell se Sondag op ’n voëlplaas ook raaisels wat opgelos moet word. Verwysings na Andri se ‘geheim’ kom deurlopend voor, daar is die raaiselagtige dood van Jester en Andri se kind, maar hoofsaaklik is dit die verteller se eksistensiële dilemma in die vraag na ‘wie is ek?’ wat deur hierdie intertekste, en dus deur die abstrakte outeur, verhelder word
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