A Narrative Discourse Analysis of Herman Charles Bosmans' Short Story 'Mafeking Road' (1932)

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1.0, University of Duisburg-Essen, course: South African Cultural Studies, language: English, abstract: In his current popularity, Herman Charles Bosman has come to be viewed as something of an 'eternal artist' figure, conveying 'marvellous home-truths for all men' (Gray 1977:79). But the truth about the later Bosman is that he became a writer who had a scrupulous, instant understanding with each passing day and each yard of newspaper that underwent his professional scrutiny. Stephen Gray suggests 'that he [Bosman] meant himself to be taken as [...] a commentator, a newspaper columnist, whose medium happened to be fiction' thus drawing attention to the underlying truths of South Africa (ibid.). By debunking the myth of Boer bravery during the second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) in his short story 'Mafeking Road', Bosman touches upon a subtle theme extant amongst the Boer community, namely extreme Afrikaner patriotism (Wenzel 1999:109-110).