Heike Gehring

Heike Gehring

In November 2015 besoek Heike Gehring die Weense studente. 

Die titel van haar lesing: Shifting identities: Afrikaans theater in a post-1994 South African context

"With the country's new freedom came a crisis of identity. No longer could the world be divided into the good (opponents of apartheid) and the bad (proponents of apartheid), clear lines began to blur and with the blurring came uncertainty."

Read more:
http://www.southafrica.info/about/arts/615859.htm#.Vp7FcE_Lr90#ixzz3xjfkj1zg

Heike is a senior lecturer at the Drama Department of Rhodes University where she teaches Acting, Voice Studies and Contemporary Performance, as well as theoretical courses. Apart from her role as lecturer, she is has fulfilled a managerial function as director of the Rhodes Theatre complex from 2008 – 2014. For this she has been awarded with a Rhodes University merit award for outstanding work. Apart from lecturing, she is involved as theatre maker in the capacity of creator, director and producer. For this she has won several awards, amongst them the Sanlam Prize for Afrikaans Theatre (SPAT), in the categories Best Director and Best Production and the Rhodes Women of The Year Award for her contribution to the performing arts in 2006. Recently she has been a guest lecturer at various international universities, mainly teaching on aspects of South African theatre. Although she is a lecturer, she is currently completing her PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies.  

Prof. Fransjohan Pretorius

Prof. Fransjohan Pretorius

Op 5 Desember 2012 is die Universiteit Wenen se Afdeling vir Nederlandistiek die gashere van Prof. Fransjohan Pretorius. 

The title was: The Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) and its Consequences for South Africa - a Rich source for Literature. Who is prof. Pretorius?

 

• He is not only a television personality in South Africa but also Professor of History at the University of Pretoria.
• He is known as a foremost authority on the Anglo-Boer War. He has written and edited eight books on the topic, most of which appeared in both English and Afrikaans
• His knowlegde in this regard is also compiled in a television series on this subject with the title, “verskroeide aarde” of “scoarced earth”.
• He is author of numerous other books and articles and has received several awards for his work in the field of history.
• Professor Pretorius has given papers at conferences and aca­demic institutions in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the USA, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Spain and Greece.
• He served on the Board of the South African Academy for Science and Art and chaired the History Commission of that institution.
• He was chair for the National Research Foundation’s Assessment Panel for South Afri­can acade­mics in Historical Studies (2008).

Prof. Jacques van der Elst

Prof. Jacques van der Elst

Prof Jacques van der Elst het op 31 Mei 2010´n lesing aangebied met die titel: Afrikaans in South Africa, Language, Literature, Culture. He started out as a journalist and through part time studies he completed his studies in Afrikaans. Later he completed his doctorate in the Netherlands after which he started his academic career at the University of Pietermaritzburg. Later he moved to the Northwest University at Potchefstroom. He also participated in a variety of international activities. He served as chairman or member of a long list of cultural and educational organisations in South Africa. In 2005 Prof van der Elst was electd as Head Executive of the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (or, South African Academy for Science and Art).

Prof A. P. Brink

Prof A. P. Brink

Op 9 Desember 2004 besoek prof. André Brink Wenen en bied´n gaslesing oor die onderwerp Literatuur in die Nuwe Suid-Afrika aan. Die lesing is goed deur ´n heel gemengde gehoor bestaande uit studente, dosente, belangstellende Oostenrykers en (Weense) Suid-Afrikaners ontvang.

Lees ´n mens resensies oor die werk van Brink kom mens woorde teë soos magnificent, enthralling, continuously interesting and quite wonderful. Dis woorde wat ´n hele bekvol sê oor die werk van prof. Brink maar tog is dit net die oortjies van die seekoei wanneer mens kyk na wat daartoe bygedra het dat hy vandag een van die mees gerespekteerde en veelsydigste skrywers in Suid-Afrikaanse letterkundige sirkels is.

He is novelist, playwright, travel writer, translator, liter­ary critic, mentor, professor and polemicist. His novels have been translated into some thirty languages, including Serbo-Croatian, Japanese, isiXhosa and Viet­namese.

He was born on the 29th of May 1935 in the town of Vrede in the Free State, one of the 9 provinces of South Africa. Up to his retirement not so long ago he was professor at the University of Cape Town.

Professor Brink has twice been nominated for the prestigious Booker Award (in 1976 and in 1978) and has been on the shortlist for the Nobel Prize several times since 1979. He was awarded numerous other prizes abroad and in his home country.

His much publicised earlier novel Lobola vir die lewe (1962) represented a new direction in Afrikaans prose, a break within restrictive local traditions. His work is also associated with the role that white Afrikaans writers played during the tur­bulent years of the struggle against Apartheid and therefore his personal his­tory reflects political and social consciousness. He and other leading Afrikaans writers of the sixties played a major role in resisting the harsh censorship system of apartheid times. His novel Kennis van die aand (1973) was the first book to be banned in 1974. His stories issued a direct challenge to the traditions of Afri­ka­nerdom, it broke down taboos and repressions and criticized social structures while making aesthetic experiments in writing.

Today South Africans live in a new context, with a new set of rules. Also the Afrikaans writers find themselves in a new context. And this, then, is the topical framework within which Professor Brink addressed  his audience.

Dr. Edwin Hees

Dr. Edwin Hees

On 20 November 2003 the University of Vienna was so fortunate to be, in co-oporation with the department of African Studies of the University of Vienna and Friends of South Africa, the host of Dr. Edwin Hees. He was a guest lecturer at the Institute for English and American Studies in Salzburg and he also paid a visit to Vienna.

In South Africa he is senior lecturer at the Department of English at the University of Stellenbosch. On a regular basis he teaches film and South African drama courses in the Drama Department at the same university while film studies is one of his major fields of research. It was in this capacity that he discussed interesting developments in the South African film in recent years. He demonstrated his views with extracts from various films in a lecture with the title of: Nation and Narration in South African films.

What is there to be said about Edwin: According to one of his good Austrian friends, Prof. Dorothea Steiner, he is a notorious lover of Austria, of classical music, probably has one of the best collections of CD´s and video´s in SA, loves good food and a particular type of Schnaps (black cherry), is a workaholic and seems to edit and proofread for the whole English-speaking world. He never walks slowly and there is not a minute when he is not in motion of helping someone.

Op 25 November 2005 besoek dr. Hees Wenen ´n tweede keer. Dié keer praat hy oor resente ontwikkeling van drama en teater in Suid-Afrika en konsentreer op die drama "Ubu and the Truth Commission" (1997) omdat so baie van die probleme waarmee die Nuwe Suid-Afrika vandag te doen het in dié stuk in die oë gekyk word. Dit is ook´n goeie voorbeeld van kontemporêre teater in Suid-Afrika waar die multi-media gekombineer word met vrye improvisasie. Ook het hy gekyk na protesteater van die 1980`s, nl. "Woza Albert" (1980) wat eintlik die prototipe gevorm het van wat vandag bekend staan as Suid-Afrikaanse teater.

Sy lesing oor die Suid-Afrikaanse filmwêreld van die laaste 10 jaar (d.w.s. ná 1994 se demokratiese verkiesings) dui die verband aan met die vorming van nasionale identiteit. Uittreksels uit "Jump the gun" en "Mapantsula" (1988) is vir dié doel aangewend.

The development of film since 1895 is impressive and today it is an art just to be a worthwhile viewer of this medium. And with lectures of this kind we try to contribute to film literacy in general – to see better what there is to be seen.