'A reflection of a reflection' : notes on representational and ethical possibilities in Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka
Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
Abstract
In January 2014, I published a Dutch poetry volume Mens Dier Ding (Man Animal Thing) in the Netherlands and Belgium. The
book is partly based on research around the historical figure of Chaka, and especially Chaka’s fictional representation in three
versions of Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka, namely the English translation by F. H. Dutton, the later translation by Daniel P. Kunene,
and the Afrikaans translation by Chris Swanepoel. In other words, Man Animal Thing is a work of poetic fiction based on (or
“inspired by”) a work of fiction. This brings with it representational and ethical problems: what is used from which text, what
is the tipping point between writing and merely copying, for which type of reader in which context and culture is the new work
of fiction meant, and what are the consequences of portraying and imaging a fictional and historical figure? This article tries to
highlight several aspects of the creative process of misreading, researching, writing, portraying and transforming in Mens Dier
Ding. It explores how “translating” a work of fiction into another work of fiction is at the heart of the continuing conversation
that is literature, and may even be a metaphor for postmodern, or better, metamodern literature, which is characterised by an
oscillation between both modernism and postmodernism.
Description
CITATION: Schaffer, A. 2016. 'A reflection of a reflection' : notes on representational and ethical possibilities in Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka. Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, 53(2):147-160, doi:10.17159/tvl.v.53i2.12.
The original publication is available at http://journals.assaf.org.za/tvl
The original publication is available at http://journals.assaf.org.za/tvl
Keywords
Mofolo, Thomas,1875?-1948 -- Criticism and interpretation, Translating and interpreting, Anachronism, Metamodernism, Ethics, Adaptation
Citation
Schaffer, A. 2016. 'A reflection of a reflection' : notes on representational and ethical possibilities in Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka. Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, 53(2):147-160, doi:10.17159/tvl.v.53i2.12.