Deon Opperman's 'Donkerland': The Rise and Fall of Afrikaner Nationalism

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Deon Oppperman (award winning South African playwright) presents in his epic play on Afrikaner history (from the Great Trek in 1838 to the birth of the "new" South Africa in 1994) the parallel and interlinked histories of two families - represented by a white patriarch and a black matriarch and their various descendants - against the backdrop of important historical developments in South Africa. The paper will focus on the depiction of the birth and demise of Afrikaner nationalism in this play by discussing the role of the Other, as well as the identity of the Self (the Afrikaner male) in relation to the various Others found in this period.

Stream: Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

My main focus (both with undergraduate and postgraduate students) is contemporary drama theory: drama and theatre semiotics, postcolonial drama, discourse analysis.My Phd. has been published (Afrikaans), and I have also written two books on drama (Afrikaans and English) - the English one (The play: a manual 1996 Van Schaik publishers: Pretoria)has been translated into Xhosa, Sotho and Zulu. These books have been prescribed at language and drama departments accross the country. I am also the co-ordinator of a BA (with spec. in Creative Writing)programme in our faculty; as well as secretary of SAVAL (South African Society for General Literary Studies).