Translating the Landscape: Landscape As Text and Text As Landscape

By:

Ingrid Winterbach, novelist and visual artist, has been described by critics as “one of the most important novelists currently writing in Afrikaans”. In Landskap met vroue en slang (Landscape with women and snake) (1996) – the last novel published under her pseudonym Lettie Viljoen – the main character, Lena Bergh, relocates from Stellenbosch to Durban. As a result she suddenly finds herself in a subtropical landscape that does not inspire her as visual artist, but rather confuse and overwhelm her. Lena deeply yearns for the familiar, soothing landscape of the Western Cape that she had to leave behind. She becomes so obsessed by her past in the Cape that she is unable to continue her life in Durban with enthusiasm. One thing that stimulates Lena’s interest is the reading work she does on the so-called sublime landscapes of the Baroque painter, Nicolas Poussin, especially his landscape cycle The Four Seasons (1660-1664). These landscapes capture her imagination, not only because she sees her own ambivalence reflected in them, but also because they eventually become a visual instrument by means of which she can interpret the surrounding landscape more meaningfully. This article explores questions regarding landscape as text, and text as landscape. More specifically it investigates the relationship between Lena’s obsession with the past, the problems she faces in adapting to the subtropical landscape of Durban and the loss of focus and inspiration that she experiences as visual artist. Specific attention is given to the way in which Lena’s reading on the sublime landscape eventually enables her to observe the surrounding landscape in a new way, to get a certain (artistic) grip on it and to reconcile herself with the ‘fleeting moment’; the passing of time. Finally, it is indicated that Viljoen’s text may be read and interpreted as a type of ‘sublime landscape’.

Stream: Literary Arts Practices

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Thys Human was born in 1971 in Johannesburg (South Africa). Since 1999 he is a lecturer in Afrikaans Literature at the University of Johannesburg. In 2007 he completed a doctoral dissertation with the title Loss in the oeuvre of Ingrid Winterbach/Lettie Viljoen. He is the editor of Tydskrif vir Taalonderrig/Journal for Language Teaching; author of 13 accredited articles and judge for the UJ-award for Literature, the M-Net Literary Award and the Rapport/Jan Rabie-prize. He often writes literary reviews for Beeld, Rapport, Boeke-Insig and Literator.