Nicole Devarenne

Nicole Devarenne teaches part-time in the English Department at York University. She is an editor of the journal Modernism/ Modernity.

Ten years ago, Marlene van Niekerk published a novel that broke radically with the tradition of Afrikaans writing. Triomf, a grotesque family drama set in a poor white Afrikaner community, part Freudian romance, part political satire, was written in a slangy, polluted Afrikaans intended to infuriate linguistic purists. It showed white supremacist and Afrikaner nationalist ideology as leading...

Read anywhere with the London Review of Books app, available now from the App Store for Apple devices, Google Play for Android devices and Amazon for your Kindle Fire.

Sign up to our newsletter

For highlights from the latest issue, our archive and the blog, as well as news, events and exclusive promotions.

Newsletter Preferences