Wachten op de barbaren: Metageschiedenis in het werk van Peter Blum

Abstract

This article explores metahistory in the poetry of Peter Blum. In many of Blum’s poems Western civilisation is confronted with the
forces of barbarism, without civilisation necessarily being given preference over barbarism. By focussing on the metahistorical
aspects of Blum’s work, it is possible to illuminate the dialectical relationships between apparently disparate cultural domains in
his work—past and present, Europe and South Africa—which critics up till now have treated as self-contained entities. From
this angle, Blum appears to be a poet who was highly critical of white South African culture of the 1950s