Abstract
The aim of this article is to analyse one of the longer poems in Marlene van Niekerk’s latest collection of poetry, namely Kaar (Cirque and/or Creel). In this collection the interaction between humans and nature plays an important role, in that several poems deal with the intricate relationship between the poet as observer and a particular animal as the observed.
I shall focus on one poem, “Postmoderne hadeda” (Postmodern hadeda), within the context of the collection at large, and analyse it as part of the discourse on animal studies. The hadeda as a peripheral or liminal animal enters the vision of the poetic subject. As the observed the animal serves as a metaphor for the creative act and in particular postmodernist writing. Following Braidotti (2013) I will argue that Van Niekerk’s perspective on animals is posthuman and nonantropocentric, and in line with Spinoza, Deleuze and Guattari depicted as monist and non-Cartesian with the human animal not taking centre stage.
As theoretical point of departure I will use Donaldson and Kymlicka’s (2014) views on liminal animals. Donaldson and Kymlicka distinguish between wild animals, suburban animals and the so-called liminal animals. The latter term refers to that group of animals that are neither domesticated nor living in the wild. Liminal animals are often stigmatised and seen as intruders on the terrain inhabited by humans. Donaldson and Kymlicka are of the view that liminal animals know no other habitat and regard urban areas as their habitat.
Subsequently the rich layer of intertextual references in the poem will be discussed and related to the content as a whole. The poet alludes to Spinoza, Aquinas, Deleuze and Guattari and Rudolph Otto’s threefold view on holiness. The different phases of the poet’s daily observation of the animal are associated with particular concepts and references from different epochs, ranging from Ancient Egypt to our postmodern world, where he is depicted in terminology pertaining to the world of theatre. The latter links to the idea that the poet’s observation of the Other is a type of entertainment show (“in konsert”), a Son et lumière show at the Lost City. In the final part of the poem (7) the poet comes face to face with the hadeda and he hands her her hat and coat and slips her garderobe off its back. She observes that the bird disappears into a foyer of a banana tree’s shade – like an actor leaving the stage.
The poem is read within the broader context of the collection as a whole, showing how it links to other poems depicting animals or comments on the relationship between humans and animals. How does her viewpoint on writing in this poem relate to the broader reflection on the art of writing poetry in the collection as a whole? As a professor of creative writing the author Marlene van Niekerk is constantly meditating on the art of writing and the essence of creativity, as is evident in her poems.
One of the perceptions created in Van Niekerk’s collection of poetry is that the poet is a type of outsider figure, especially within the Dutch landscape where several poems are situated. Her monistic Spinozian vision is in stark contrast to that of the more materialistically inclined young Euro citizens. As the title suggests, this lengthy poem is also a reflection on postmodernism and postmodernist poetry, and the animal as Other is used as a metaphor for this reflection. The poet-speaker also meticulously documents the movements of the animal at specific times during the day in the poem. In contrast to contemporary man, who is oblivious to nature, the poet-speaker is searching for the hidden God in nature.
The poet alludes to Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of “becoming animal” to show how she crosses the liminal boundary between herself and the animal. Her gaze is aimed not only at becoming familiar with the distinctive features of the Other but also at employing the Other as a symbol of postmodernist poetry. Her perspective is in contrast to the age-old anthropomorphic view that depicts animals as being the emblematic resemblance of human attributes ascribed to them. The following remark by Deleuze and Guattari (1987:240) is apposite in this regard: “If the writer is a sorcerer, this is because to write is to become, to write is traversed by strange becomings, which are not becomings-writer but becomings-rat, becomings-insect, becomings-wolf, etc.”
This analysis concludes that, as Braidotti (2013:71) remarks, a post-anthropocentric perspective on animals results in the undermining of binary oppositions such as the dualism between humans and animals. The liminal animal ventures on to the terrain of the poet and is no longer viewed as the intrusive Other, but is central to the contemplation on writing. The Cartesian duality between spirit and body is also subverted, since the poem illustrates how the poet becomes infatuated with the observed animal, and the ensuing sensations experienced from this encounter play a pivotal role in her writing. It is almost as if she is becoming-hadeda and there is a constant sense of mysterium, tremendum fascinans. The homo ludens aspect of creativity is also activated in the postmodernist games played with the reader.
Keywords: animal studies; becoming-animal; ecocriticism; Kaar; liminal animals; postmodernism and poetry
Lees die volledige artikel in Afrikaans: Die hadeda as liminale dier in Kaar van Marlene van Niekerk
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