Abstract
André Brink (1935–2015) was an eminent South African writer, particularly known for his novels portraying the realities of apartheid South Africa. This chapter examines the notion of discursive transfer practices, specifically writing, self-translation and bilingual writing, by discussing Brink’s work. It is argued that the notion of the cultural mediator needs to be problematised, and that the contexts influencing and influenced by Brink’s discursive transfer practices be considered alongside his cultural products. In doing so, concepts such as “mediator”, “source culture”, “translation” and even “transfer” gain additional levels of meaning, inviting us to reflect on the assumptions that are often inherently implied when we use them.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
List of Brink’s Works Referred To
Brink, A. P. 1962. Lobola vir die lewe. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.
Brink, A. P. 1963. Die ambassadeur. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.
Brink, A. P. 1967. Aspekte van die nuwe prosa. Pretoria: Academica.
Brink, A. P. 1973. Kennis van die aand. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.
Brink, A. P. 1974. Looking on Darkness. London: W. H. Allen.
Brink, A. P. 1983. Mapmakers: Writing in a State of Siege. London: Faber & Faber.
Brink, A. P. 1984. The Wall of the Plague. London: Faber & Faber.
Brink, A. P. 1985. The Ambassador. London: Faber & Faber.
Brink, A. P. 1996. Reinventing a Continent: Revisiting History in the Literature of the New South Africa: A Personal Testimony. World Literature Today 70 (1): 17–23.
Brink, A. P. 1998a. Devil’s Valley. London: Vintage.
Brink, A. P. 1998b. Duiwelskloof. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.
Brink, A. P. 2005a. Bidsprinkaan. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.
Brink, A. P. 2005b. Praying Mantis. London: Vintage.
Brink, A. P. 2008a. Ander Lewens. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.
Brink, A. P. 2008b. Other Lives. Cape Town: Random House.
Brink, A. P. 2009a. A Fork in the Road: A Memoir. London: Harvill Secker.
Brink, A. P. 2009b. ’n Vurk in die pad: ’n memoir. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.
Brink, A. P. 2012. Philida. London: Vintage.
References
Bassnett, S., and A. Lefevere. 1990. “General Editors’ Preface.” In Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame, edited by A. Lefevere, vii–viii. London: Routledge.
Bassnett, S., and H. Trivedi. 1999. Postcolonial Translation: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.
Beale, N. 2009. “Interview with André Brink.” Available: http://literarytourist.com/2009/05/audiointerview-with-andre-brink-by-nigel-beale/. Accessed November 13, 2015.
Bhatti, A. 2014. “‘Cultural Similarity Does Not Mean That We Wear the Same Shirts’: Similarity and Difference in Culture and Cultural Theory.” Word and Text 4 (2): 13–23.
Brink, A. P. 1971. “André Brink: The Refuge of Small Minds.” Sunday Times, April 25.
Burger, W. 2007. “Dit is sterk doepa daai” maar is dit al wat ons het? Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 23 (1): 81–99.
Chapman, M. 2009. “Introduction: Conjectures on South African Literature.” Current Writing 21 (1–2): 1–23.
Coetzee, J. M. 1990. “André Brink and the Censor”. Research in African Literatures 21 (3): 59–74.
Collins, L. 2016. “Blue Blood, Blue Collar.” The New Yorker, January 18. Available: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/18/blue-blood-blue-collar. Accessed January 13, 2016.
De Kock, L. 2005. “Does South African Literature Still Exist? Or: South African Literature is Dead, Long Live Literature in South Africa.” English Studies in Africa 51 (1): 107–122.
De Roubaix, L. 2012. “Where Boundaries Blur: André Brink as Writer, Bilingual Writer, Translator and Self-Translator.” In Versatility in Translation Studies: Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2011, edited by I. Herrero and T. Klaiman. Available: http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html. Accessed October 2, 2013.
De Vries, A. H. 1972. “André P. Brink in Gesprek Met Abraham de Vries.” In: Gesprekke met skrywers 2, 1–26. Cape Town: Tafelberg.
D’hulst, L. 2012. “(Re)locating Translation History: From Assumed Translation to Assumed Transfer.” Translation Studies 5 (2): 139–155.
Diala, I. 2015. “André Brink: In Defiance of Boundaries.” Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 52 (2): 197–199.
Dovey, C. 2013. “Cape Fear: ‘Philida,’ by André Brink.” The New York Times, February 15. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/books/review/philida-by-andre-brink.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. Accessed December 19, 2015.
Du Preez, M. 1984. “Across the Wall.” Financial Mail, August 3, 67.
Eder, Richard. 1980. “An Interview with André Brink.” New York Times, March 23. www.nytimes.com/books/99/03/21/specials/brink-interview.html. Accessed January 2016.
Elnadi, B., and A. Rifaat. 1993. “André Brink talks to Bahgat Elnadi and Adel Rifaat,” 4–8. Unesco Courier.
Even-Zohar, I. 1990. “The Position of Translated Literature Within the Literary Polysystem.” Poetics Today 11 (1): 45–51.
Ezeliora, O. 2008. “The Fantasia and the Post-Apartheid Imagination: History and Narration in André Brink’s Devil’s Valley.” In Neither East Nor West: Postcolonial Essays on Literature, Culture and Religion, edited by K. W. Shands, 83–103. Huddinge: Södertörns Högskola.
Gentzler, E., and M. Tymoczko. 2002. “Introduction.” In Translation and Power, edited by M. Tymoczko and E. Gentzler, xi–xxviii. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Giliomee, H. 2003. The Afrikaners: Biography of a People. London: Hurst & Co.
Gorra, M. 1992. “An Afrikaner Underground.” The New York Times. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/03/21/specials/brink-terror.html. Accessed January 14, 2016.
Gray, S. 1989. “Some Problems of Writing Historiography in Southern Africa.” Literator 10 (2): 16–24.
Hambidge, J. 2013. André Brink—Other Lives: A Novel in Three Parts. Available: http://joanhambidge.blogspot.co.za/2013/01/andre-brink-other-lives-novel-in-three.html. Accessed July 4, 2016.
Hatim, B., and I. Mason. 1990. Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman.
Hermans, T. 1996. “The Translator’s Voice in Translated Narrative.” Target 8 (1): 23–48.
Hermans, T. 1999. Translation in Systems: Descriptive and System-Oriented Approaches Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.
Hornberger, J. 2011. Policing and Human Rights: The Meaning of Violence and Justice in the Everyday Policing of Johannesburg. London: Routledge.
Kannemeyer, J. C. 1976. Die Afrikaanse Bewegings. Pretoria: Academica.
Kannemeyer, J. C. 2005. Die Afrikaanse Literatuur 1652–2004. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.
Korval, R. 2009. “André Brink’s South African journey.” The Book Show, ABC Radio, April 17, Friday. Available: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bookshow/andre-brinks-south-african-journey/3144330. Accessed January 14, 2016.
Leroux, E. 1962. Sewe dae by die Silbersteins. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.
McDonald, P. D. 2009. The Literature Police: Apartheid Censorship and Its Cultural Consequences. London: Oxford University Press.
Meylaerts, R., and M. Gonne. 2014. “Transferring the City—Transgressing Borders: Cultural Mediators in Antwerp (1850–1930).” Translation Studies 7 (2): 133–151.
Nuttall, S., and C. Coetzee, eds. 1998. Negotiating the Past: The Making of Memory in South Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Prono, Luca. 2009. “André Brink.” Available: http://literature.britishcouncil.org/andra-brink. Accessed October 19, 2015.
Rafapa, L. 2014. “Post-Apartheid Transnationalism in Black South African Literature: A Reality or a Fallacy?” Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 51 (1): 57–73.
Rossini, M., and M. Toggweiler. 2014. “Cultural Transfer: An Introduction.” Word and Text 4 (2): 5–9.
Sunderland, J. 1986. “The Ambassador by Andre Brink.” Los Angeles Times, May 18. Available: http://articles.latimes.com/1986-05-18/books/bk-20692_1_south-african. Accessed September 16, 2015.
Terblanche, E. 2015. “André P. Brink (1935–2015).” Available: http://www.litnet.co.za/andr-p-brink-1935/. Accessed December 15, 2015.
Tiffin, H. 1987. “Post-Colonial Literatures and Counter-Discourse”. Kunapipi 9 (3): 17–34.
Tymoczko, M. 1999. “Postcolonial Writing and Literary Translation.” In Postcolonial Translation: Theory and Practice, edited by S. Bassnett and H. Trivedi, 19–40. London: Routledge.
Venuti, L. 1995. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London: Routledge.
Viljoen, L. 1995. “Re-Writing History: André Brink’s An Act of Terror (1991) and On the Contrary (1993).” Koers 60 (4): 505–519.
Viljoen, L. 2008. “Nationalism, Gender and Sexuality in the Autobiographical Writing of Two Afrikaner Women.” Social Dynamics 34 (2): 186–202.
Viljoen, L. 2009. “Die voeë en nate van André P. Brink se lewe en werk boeiend tot stand gebring in memoir.” LitNet. Available: http://argief.litnet.co.za/article.php?news_id=67071. Accessed June 27, 2011.
Viljoen, L. 2014. “Die rol van Nederland in die transnasionale beweging van enkele Afrikaanse skrywers.” Internationale Neerlandistiek 52 (1): 3–26.
Wheatcroft, G. 1982. “A Talk with André Brink.” New York Times, June 13, 14. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/13/books/a-talk-with-andre-brink.html. Accessed November 13, 2015.
Wilkins, I., and H. Strydom. 2012. The Super-Afrikaners: Inside the Afrikaner Broederbond. Cape Town: Jonathan Ball.
Wroe, N. 2004. “Out of the Laager.” The Guardian, August 14. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/aug/14/fiction.politics. Accessed November 18, 2015.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
De Roubaix, L. (2018). Moving “Out of the Laager” and “Betraying the Tribe”: André Brink as Cultural Mediator. In: Roig-Sanz, D., Meylaerts, R. (eds) Literary Translation and Cultural Mediators in 'Peripheral' Cultures. New Comparisons in World Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78114-3_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78114-3_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78113-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78114-3
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)