Postmodemisme, subjektiwiteit en geskiedenis : Louis Ferron se Turkenvespers as 'n historiese collage

Abstract

The postmodernist element (among other things) in Louis Ferron's novel, Turkenvespers (1977) becomes apparent in Ferron's playful irreverence for historical fact and chronology. History functions as a problematizing aspect in the efforts of the character Kaspar Hauser to attain coherent subjectivity. Kaspar unsuccessfully reverts to borrowed identities from both the historical and the literary past to constitute himself as an autonomous subject. This article examines the concomitance of history and subjectivity as represented in Turkenvespers. Furthermore, the various visions of history accommodated by Ferron's novel are explored and subsequently collated with postmodernist conceptions of history.