Breyten Breytenbach meets Aad Nuis

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Information

Date and time Friday 29 January 1999 22:45 tot 23:45 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - grote zaal

Breyten Breytenbach is not a poet for politically correct events. As he writes, he has 'the worng age, colour and gender. I have uneasy political views, with which I cannot satisfy the Dutch need for a moral orgasm. " One of the greatest poets from South-Africa read from his work and talked to Aad Nuis on his latest novel 'Dog's Heart' and on his vision of his country.

Aad Nuis

(Sliedrecht, 1933) grew up in Rotterdam, he studied political and social science in Amsterdam, and wrote poetry in the meantime. His studies resulted in a long term membership of Dutch parliament, and finally in the function of Secretary of State for culture and media. His collection of essays on literature and literary criticism Een stem in je hoofd (A voice in your head) was published in 1989. De balenkraai (Crow of bales, 1967) is about the period in New Guinea where he was sent during his military duty (1962). In these personal chronicles, Nuis observes and describes the world around him with mild irony. He met Breyten Breytenbach during an anti-apartheids manifestation and would later translated his Alles één paard (All one horse, 1989).
WN 1998
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Breyten Breytenbach

(1939, Bonnievale) is a South-African writer and painter with French citizenship. He studied at the University of Cape Town. He became a committed opponent of apartheid and left South Africa for Paris in the early 1960s. On returning to South Africa in 1975 he was arrested and sentenced to nine years of imprisonment. In his work The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist he describes aspects of his imprisonment. After his release in 1982 he returned to Paris. Breytenbach wrote poetry, novels, essays and plays. His poems are rich in metaphores and are a complex mixture of references to Buddhism, Afrikaans idiomatic speech, and memories of the South African landscape. Breytenbach is also known as a painter. Many of his paintings portray surreal human and animal figures, often shown in captivity. He has been honored with numerous literary and art awards. Breytenbach is active in different organizations for South-African political exiles.
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