Prof Andries Visagie and Ms Jacomien van Niekerk elected to the management committee of the Afrikaanse Letterkundevereniging

During the recent conference of the Afrikaanse Letterkundevereniging (ALV) that took place at the University of South Africa from 25 t0 27 September 2012, two members of the Department of Afrikaans (UP) were elected to the management committee of this subject association. Prof Andries Visagie is the new chair of the association and Ms Jacomien van Niekerk was elected to serve as additional member on the management committee.

The University of Pretoria was very well represented at the conference and no less than six literary and legal scholars from UP presented papers. Prof Willie Burger presented a paper on Karel Schoeman’s novel Die uur van die engel, Prof Andries Visagie presented his research on the relationship between humans and animals in Alexander Strachan’s novel Dwaalpoort and Ms Jacomien van Niekerk presented a paper on the creative non-fiction of Antjie Krog within a postcolonial context. An honours student in the Department of Afrikaans, Mr Neil van Heerden, made a very good impression with the lively discussion that followed after his paper on animals in the poetry of N.P. van Wyk Louw.

Although the ALV conference was somewhat smaller than in the past, the quaility of the papers was very hig and two editions of the journal Stilet is planned with a selection of papers presented at the conference.

A highlight at the conference was the plenary paper by Sonja Loots from the University of Cape Town who spoke insightfully on her historical novel Sirkusboere (2011). This novel has already received the Eugène Marais and the M-Net Prizes.

The UP Department of Afrikaans has been approached to host the next conference of the ALV in 2014. The Department is already considering different options to ensure that this occasion turns out to be another memorable event in stimulating research on Afrikaans literature.