"Harlekijns in den bonten stoet"? 'n Herbesoek aan die vroee komiese poesie in Afrikaans

Abstract

“Harlequins in a pied parade”? A revisit to early comic poetry in Afrikaans Some South African newspapers and individuals considered the so-called “Patriot movement” or First Afrikaans Language Movement’s efforts to transform “the taal” into a literary medium a joke. Quite ironically, part of the movement’s cultural campaign was based on the production and encouragement of poetical jokes and light verse. This article firstly deals with the reception and evaluation of this corpus of humorous poems in the history of Afrikaans literature, secondly it explores the relations of this cultural manifestation with the context of 19th century European cultural nationalism and thirdly examins its connections with the broader Dutch and international literary landscape of the time.