- Breyten Breytenbach
Breyten Breytenbach (born
September 16 ,1939 ) is aSouth Africa nwriter and painter with Frenchcitizenship .Breyten Breytenbach was born in
Bonnievale, Western Cape in theWestern Cape , approximately 180 km fromCape Town and 100 km from the southernmost tip ofAfrica atCape Agulhas . He studiedfine arts at theUniversity of Cape Town and became a committed opponent of the policy ofapartheid . He left South Africa forParis in the early 1960s. When he married a French woman ofVietnam ese ancestry, he was not allowed to return: "TheProhibition of Mixed Marriages Act " (1949) and "TheImmorality Act " (1950) made it a criminal offence for a white person to have any sexual relations with a person of a different race.In France he was a founder member of "
Okhela ", a resistance group fighting apartheid inexile . On an illegal trip to South Africa in 1975 he was betrayed, arrested and sentenced to seven years ofimprisonment forhigh treason : his work "The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist" describes aspects of his imprisonment. Released in 1982 as a result of massive international intervention he returned to Paris and obtained French citizenship.He currently divides his time between
Europe , Africa, and theUnited States . He joined the University of Cape Town as a visiting professor in the Graduate School of Humanities (from January 2000) and is also involved with theGorée Institute inDakar (Senegal ) and withNew York University , where he teaches in the Graduate Creative Writing Program.The work of Breytenbach includes numerous volumes of
poetry , novels, and essays, many of which are inAfrikaans , many translated from Afrikaans to English, and many published originally in English. He is also known for his works of pictorial arts. Exhibitions of hispainting s and prints were shown in numerous cities around the world includingJohannesburg , Cape Town,Hong Kong ,Amsterdam ,Stockholm , Paris,Brussels ,Edinburgh and New York.Breytenbach was described as the only example of a "nice South African" in the song "
I've Never Met A Nice South African ". The song was written by John Lloyd for the satirical British TV series,Spitting Image .He is the brother of
Jan Breytenbach , founder of the South African Special Forces, and Cloete Breytenbach, a well-publishedwar correspondent .Poetry in Afrikaans
* "The Iron Cow Must Sweat" (Die ysterkoei moet sweet), Johannesburg, 1964
* "The House of the Deaf" (Die huis van die dowe), Cape Town, 1967
* "Gangrene" (Kouevuur), Cape Town, 1969
* "Lotus", Cape Town, 1970
* "The Remains" (Oorblyfsels), Cape Town, 1970
* "Scrit. Painting Blue a sinking Ship." (Skryt. Om `n sinkende skip blou te verf), Amsterdam, 1972
* "In Other Words" (Met ander woorde), Cape Town, 1973
* "Foot Writing" (Voetskrif), Johannesburg, 1976
* "Sinking Ship Blues",Toronto 1977
* "And Death White as Words. An Anthology", London, 1978
* "In Africa even the flies are happy", London, 1978
* "Flower Writing" (Blomskryf),Emmarentia , 1979 (Selected poems)
* "Eclipse" (Eklips), Emmarentia, 1983
* YK ('YK'), Emmarentia, 1983
* "Buffalo Bill", Emmarentia, 1984
* "Living Death" (Lewendood), Emmarentia, 1985
* "Judas Eye", London - New York, 1989
* "As Like" (Soos die so), Emmarentia, 1990
* "Nine Landscapes of our Times Bequeathed to a Beloved" (Nege landskappe van ons tye bemaak aan `n beminde),Groenkloof , 1993
* "The Handful of Feathers" (Die hand vol vere), Cape Town, 1995 (Selected poems)
* "The Remains. An Elegy" (Oorblyfsels. ´n Roudig), Cape Town, 1997
* "Paper Flower" (Papierblom), Cape Town, 1998
* "Lady One", Cape Town, 2000 (Selected love poems)
* "Iron Cow Blues" (Ysterkoei-blues), Cape Town, 2001 (Collected poems 1964-1975)
* "Lady One: Of Love and other Poems", New York, 2002
* "The undanced dance. Prison poetry 1975 - 1983" (Die ongedanste dans. Gevangenisgedigte 1975 - 1983), Cape Town, 2005
* "the windcatcher" (die windvanger), Cape Town, 2007Prose in English
* "Catastrophes" (Katastrofes), Johannesburg, 1964 (Stories)
* "To Fly" (Om te vlieg), Cape Town, 1971 (Novel)
* "The Tree Behind the Moon" (De boom achter de maan), Amsterdam, 1974 (Stories)
* "The Anthill Bloats …" (Die miernes swell op …), Emmarentia, 1980 (Stories)
* "A Season in Paradise" (Een seizoen in het paradijs), Amsterdam - New York - London, 1980 (Novel, uncensored edition)
* "Mouroir: Mirror Notes of a Novel", London - New York, 1983
* "Mirror Death" (Spiegeldood), Amsterdam, 1984 (Stories)
* "End Papers", London, 1985 (Essays)
* "The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist", London - New York, 1985
* "Memory of Snow and of Dust", London - New York, 1987 (Novel)
* "Book. Part One" (Boek. Deel een), Emmarentia, 1987 (Essays)
* "All One Horse. Fiction and Images", London, 1989
* "Sweet Heart" (Hart-Lam), Emmarentia, 1991 (Essays)
* "Return to Paradise. An African journal", London - New York, 1992 (which won theAlan Paton Award )
* "The Memory of Birds in Times of Revolution", London - New York, 1996 (Essays)
* "Dog Heart. A travel memoir", Cape Town, 1998
* "Word Work" (Woordwerk), Cape Town, 1999
* "A veil of footsteps", Cape Town, 2008Collaboration
*
Battery 9 See also
*
Sestigers External links
* [http://www.stellenboschwriters.com/breyten.html Stellenbosch Writers]
* [http://www.nyu.edu/fas/Faculty/Global/BreytenBreytenbach.html Breyten Breytenbach, Professor of Creative Writing]
* [http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0204/msg00150.html Open letter to General Ariel Sharon] (by Breyten Breytenbach)
*http://www.goreeinstitute.org/
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