Re-imagining the past, negotiating the present: the lived diasporic experience in S.J. Naudé and Jaco van Schalkwyk's fiction

S.J. Naudé's collection of short stories, The Alphabet of Birds, foregrounds the diasporic experiences of its marginalised, transnational subjects. The stories unearth profound grief and a deep sense of loss and displacement. The title of the collection suggests that the content grapples with issues that are central to the discourse of diaspora: movement, freedom, borders, home, dwelling, meaning, and identity. Jaco van Schalkwyk's debut novel, The Alibi Club, is structured around the story of a young man's efforts to build a new life in an unfamiliar country. Although very different in style, tone, and form, Naudé and Van Schalkwyk both ask questions about the nature of belonging, pain and loss associated with the diasporic experience: How does one come to terms with one's past?; How does one navigate oneself in an increasingly estranging global world?; Is it possible to re-imagine the past, to rewrite the stories one tells about oneself? Naudé and Van Schalkwyk are not the first South Africans to give thought to these questions; in fact, our country has a rich history of pre- and post-apartheid diasporic writings. What I find compelling, however, is how a new generation of authors - a group of writers that faces unique challenges - draws on the literary form to engage with and relate to the past and present, their country of birth, and their language. I consider in what ways the literary form allows these two authors to articulate and re-imagine the lived diasporic experiences of their Afrikaans-speaking, contemporary transnational subjects who inhabit multiple identities