Kris Van der Bijl

South African Writer

Posts

April 27, 2024

Behind the Orange Tree Gulley

It’s said that Mr Phahlele’s public notoriety rose when he bought a string of properties in the Bishopscourt area of Cape Town. However, what really got him famous was his decision to cut a gulley across his estate.

Short Story
April 22, 2024

The Dullness of Writing Back: On A. Igoni Barrett’s Blackass

Reading texts as being their own way of becoming – maybe with a colonial rewriting and maybe with precolonial mythology – and not that which becomes overwhelmed by a reader’s own weight, so that it crushes the potential of both the text and the critic, seems best for a novel like Blackass.

Book Review, Essay
April 13, 2024

Narrative Tricks in The Angel of Santa Sofia by Josep M. Argemí

The Angel of Santa Sofia is a short novella by Josep M. Argemí, and tells the story of unnamed narrators attending an academic convention on the devil in Turin.

Book Review
March 24, 2024

Can Zombeavers be a feminist allegory?

Why do I question whether this is a feminist allegory? It involves seeing the zombeavers as a representation of outside invading a female space. And, not just any outsider, but a mutant animal created from the male truck drivers negligence

Film Review
March 17, 2024

On Irony in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood

I wish to explore my thoughts on the cliched and overused discussions around the use of irony in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood.

Book Review, Essay