Stuart Cloete's construction of Voortrekker religion in Turning Wheels.
Date
2001
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Redaksiekantoor Universiteit van die Vrystaat, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa, email: tigdt@rs.uovs.ac.za
University of the Free State
University of the Free State
Abstract
Stuart Cloete’s novel of 1937, Turning Wheels, was unquestionably the most controversial of many fictional reconstructions of the Great Trek, a book which fell foul of Afrikaner nationalism and whose further importation into the Union of South Africa was long consequently banned. Religious motifs reflecting the popularised Calvinism of the Voortrekkers figure prominently in the text. Cloete depicted these migrants as people of faith whose removal to a new Canaan entailed both internal strife and repeated clashes with indigenous African tribes. Among the thematic elements are belief in divine purpose and providence, postfigurative uses of the Pentateuchal characters Moses and Abraham, the image of the clergy, the failure of religious belief to maintain ethical norms among the Voortrekkers and the contribution of an ethnocentric distortion of Christianity to disharmonious relations with black Africans.
Description
CITATION: Hale, F. 2001. Stuart Cloete's construction of Voortrekker religion in Turning Wheels. Acta Theologica, 21(1):24-40, doi:10.38140/at.v21i1.1525.
The original publication is available at https://journals.ufs.ac.za
The original publication is available at https://journals.ufs.ac.za
Keywords
Citation
Acta Theologica
Hale, F. 2001. Stuart Cloete's construction of Voortrekker religion in Turning Wheels. Acta Theologica, 21(1):24-40, doi:10.38140/at.v21i1.1525.
Hale, F. 2001. Stuart Cloete's construction of Voortrekker religion in Turning Wheels. Acta Theologica, 21(1):24-40, doi:10.38140/at.v21i1.1525.