Abstract
M.A. (Afrikaans)
When the collection of short texts, Sleep vir jou In stoel nader,
was first published, reactions were varied. Many literary
critics heralded the texts as new, exciting and of great literary
value. However, a few members of the public objected to the
texts' risque content and it was subsequently banned.
Fortunately, the text's literary value prevailed and Sleep vir
jou 'n stoel nader was removed from the list of undesirable
publications. Andre Ie Roux's work is unique in that he based
the fiction on his day to day experiences as a journalist.
Because the book is controversial, it is necessary to outline the
theoretical aspects, such as reception history, in the
introductory chapter. The role of the critics in the reception
of the texts is specifically studied as their reviews appeared
mainly in newspapers and magazines. Most of the critics
mentioned the fact that the collection of short texts had been
banned and questioned the role of censorship in literature.
These reviews (which are mentioned in the first chapter) have
several shortcomings which are discussed in the third chapter.
Several critics mentioned aspects of the different literary
trends that are evident in the texts, such as Postmodernism,
Realism and New journalism. Aspects of these literary trends are
discussed in depth in the second chapter. The interplay between
reality (the Huisgenoot-texts) and fiction (the short stories and
poems) are carefully considered. The two related texts are
compared and analysed, for example, determining which facts are
present in the articles but are not utilised in the texts. This
establishes the manner in which the author used and transformed
these facts to create fiction...