SOURCE: “Postcolonialism and Recent Women's Writing in Afrikaans: South African Literature in Transition,” in World Literature Today, Vol. 70, No. 1, Winter, 1996, pp. 63-72.

In the following essay, Viljoen theorizes that postcolonial literature produced by Afrikaans women has evolved to address issues of apartheid as well as those of class and gender.

1: Postcolonialism and Afrikaans Literature

Although cynical words have been spoken about the current popularity and academic marketability of postcolonial theory, it cannot be denied that it has provided valuable new perspectives on the world's so-called marginal literatures. One's understanding of postcolonialism is largely determined by the way in which the prefix post- in postcolonialism is read. If it is read as a reference to temporal succession and even supersession, the term postcolonialism applies to that which follows after colonialism. If, however, colonialism is defined as the way in which unequal international relations of economic, political, military, and cultural...