Die Tagtigers en die Tydskrif vir letterkunde – was daar ’n Tagtigerbeweging?

Abstract

To identify a unique movement within the stream of literary works published in a decade of literary history, the historian of a literature should investigate the relationship between specific literary texts and the broader literary “industry” as well as their social context. The 1980s in South Africa (and in Afrikaans literature) were characterized by border wars, escalating political unrest and a state of emergency; in the literary world borders and barriers were being breached – between genres, in postmodern fashion, between old and new, in the writings of older and younger authors. This content and these trends were noticeable in the pages of the Tydskrif vir letterkunde, which served as a forum for new writing by established authors, and the debut of emerging young writers, among others Koos Prinsloo, Alexander Strachan and Etienne van Heerden. Their work reflected the revolutionary socio-political context, exploring also new pathways for the literary imagination. Manifestoes by André Letoit (a.k.a. Koos Kombuis) and Etienne van Heerden, published in the Tydskrif reflected new but divergent attitudes towards life and literature. Although one cannot deduce a coherent movement from these Tydskrif writings, they still present a panorama of singular activity in the Afrikaans literature of the 1980s.