D. P. M. Botes, Marcel Duchamp, die Europese avant-garde en ’n literêre definisie van plagiaat

Abstract

This article attempts to widen the literary critical perspective on plagiarism by focussing on an early example of plagiarism in Afrikaans literature associated with the name of D.P.M. Botes and the little magazine Wurm. Botes’s supposed plagiarism is placed in the framework of the European avant-garde by comparing it with Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain of 1917. This comparison forms the basis on which other instances of plagiarism in Afrikaans are commented on, as well as on which a ‘literary’ definition of plagiarism is advanced.