Abstract:
The experience of being marginalised may take on many forms. It may be as a result of
certain values that society attaches to aspects such as gender, race, social standing, physical
disabilities or sexual orientation. A group may be marginalised as punishment for their
perceived (or real) transgressions in the past which are then seen as justification for the
marginalisation. In some cases a person is unable to voice the experience of being/feeling
marginalised, but in others voice is given to the “outsider experience”, possibly as a form
of protest against the experience. In the article the experience of being marginalised as
voiced implicitly or explicitly by some Afrikaans (Afrikaner) writers and poets is explored by
referring to (for the most part autobiographical) texts published between 2005 and 2009.
Most of these writers are older than seventy, and therefore the possibility of nostalgia for “a
lost youth” is not ruled out. On the other hand certain common denominators pertaining to
the experience of marginality as evident from the texts are pointed out.
