Wat de taal niet toelaat: Ethiek van het heterolinguïsme in Henk van Woerdens Zuid-Afrikaanse trilogie

This article focuses on the heterolingual aspects of Henk Van Woerden’s so-called South-African trilogy: Moenie kyk nie (1993), Tikoes (1996) and Een mond vol glas (1998). How ‘other’ is the otherness of the different languages staged by his heterolingual literary discourse? And to what extent can this aesthetic category also provide new insights on literature and its ethical power? My contention is that Van Woerden’s novels contribute to a conception of linguistic communication that does not fit in a (romantic) nationalist paradigm, and therefrom ‐ in the South African context but also in multicultural Netherlands and Flanders today ‐ his narratives can provide new insights on other(ness), its literary representation and its historization.