Nie aan God of die duiwel getrou nie”: Joan Hambidge en die rol van die polemikus/ kritikus in die literêre sisteem

Abstract

Joan Hambidge is well known in the Afrikaans cultural world: on the one hand for her extensive creative output, and on the other hand for her provocative book reviews and views on literature. Her various essays, reviews, letters, opinion pieces and columns on literature represent an impressive body of work by a remarkably productive critic. While many literary studies on Hambidge’s poetry and prose have been undertaken, and a few have approached her creative work from research fields such as publishing studies and corpus linguistics, there has not been, as far as can be determined, any research focused in particular on Hambidge’s critical output. This article is a response to this lacuna in research into the work or this versatile author. The study therefore focuses on the discourses (also sometimes called genres) within the Afrikaans literary system that are broadly known as the polemic and criticism. The argumentative point of departure is that a meaningful discussion about the nature and purpose of Afrikaans literary criticism today can evidently benefit from a selected consideration of Hambidge’s wide-ranging contribution within this arena. In the first section of the article, the terms polemic and criticism are explored to determine to which degree these genres differ and overlap, and how they are important for the proper functioning of a literary system. In the second section of the article follows a consideration of selected texts from Hambidge’s critical corpus in support of a brief assessment (and celebration) of the significant contribution made by this writer and critic to Afrikaans literary criticism. I pay attention to the ways in which Hambidge’s critical work can refine our ideas around the polemic and criticism, while I also show how her contribution to critical literary discourse may possibly influence the ongoing conversation around the need for and purpose of polemics and criticism within the Afrikaans literary system.