Celliers se "Uitkyk" in Pole. Doelbewuste of toevallige parallelle tussen Martjie van Jan F.E. Celliers en "Pan Tadeusz" van Adam Mickiewicz?

Abstract

This article focuses on the relations between different literary texts that are exemplified here by the parallelism between epic poems in Afrikaans (written by Jan F.E. Celliers) and in Polish (by Adam Mickiewicz). The article analyses the knowledge of Polish national matters within South Africa at the beginning of the 20th century. The article presents an outline of the biography of Adam Mickiewicz, the most important Polish romantic poet. It also discusses the likelihood of Celliers becoming acquainted with "Pan Tadeusz" while staying in Switzerland. Rereading Celliers’s "Martjie" against the background of Mickiewicz’s "Pan Tadeusz" not only opens a new perspective for the formulation of an innovative hypothesis about influences and dependencies in literature, but also for a reinterpretation of the tradition of early Afrikaans patriotic literature. Using the concept of intertextuality as a point of departure, I aim to examine the astonishing parallelisms between "Martjie" and "Pan Tadeusz", evident on different levels of analysis. I also try to demonstrate that this was a typical element of Celliers’s erudition and poetical practice.