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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:In Pursuit of the Subject: Towards a Biography of Arthur Nortje
Author:Klopper, DirkISNI
Year:2004
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:30
Issue:4
Period:December
Pages:869-887
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:biography
writers
poetry
Literature, Mass Media and the Press
History and Exploration
About person:Arthur Nortje (1942-1970)ISNI
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/4133888
Abstract:This article presents the conceptual framework and methodological approach the author adopted in his research towards a biography of the South African poet Arthur Nortje (1942-1970). It begins by identifying the principles of biographical unity advocated by James Boswell, and adopted by subsequent biographers, and proceeds to question the validity of these principles in the light of contemporary reflections on the nature of the subject, language, and narrative. As an alternative to traditional principles of biographical unity, which have evolved in parallel with the principles governing realist fiction, the article proposes the notion of a 'dialectic of difference' in the life and work of Nortje, discussing how this dialectic not only differentiates Nortje as subject but is also the subject of his writings. Following consideration of the forms of evidence available to the biographer, the biographical material to hand on Nortje is described and its potential significance indicated in reconstructing the life-story in the form of a postcolonial biography. The discussion pulls together the various lines of enquiry by reflecting on the implications of reconstructing the life as a discursive event before concluding with an invocation of the subject in process. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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