Abstract
M.A.
An overview of reviews on Antjie Krog’s ‘n Ander Tongval (2005), shows that critics find
it difficult to classify the text and to determine the genre of the book. This study is
intended to investigate the hybrid nature of ‘n Ander Tongval which is a mixture of
poetry, essays, journalistic report, autobiography, academic research and personal
anecdotes.
This study is primarily an examination of a specific example of a text that can be
considered “literary non-fiction” to contribute to the description of the nature of this
particularly problematic genre, while at the same time contributing to the literary
criticism of Krog’s “literary non-fiction”.
Secondly ‘n Ander Tongval is examined to determine the specific demands that this
kind of text makes of the reader.
This examination of ‘n Ander Tongval contributes to the description and problematising
of the term “literary non-fiction” and many other genres which can be associated with
these kind of texts because of its hybrid nature.
This is also linked to the current debate about the growing interest in what Leon de
Kock (2010) describes as “Creative Non-fiction”. De Kock considers this kind of writing
distinctive of South African literature.
Eventually it becomes clear that ‘n Ander Tongval does not only advocate change
(transformation), but makes a change possible by the choice of genre (literary nonfiction)
which is itself a text that “changes” established genre conventions and thereby
guides the reader to read differently and look at the text and the country in a different
way.