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In the institutional context of literature in Flanders Herman de Coninck (1944–97) was an important player (or "actor"). The author is well known as a poet, a literary critic and editor of the Dutch Granta-like magazine Nieuw Wereldtijdschrift (NWT). Academics and essayists have paid much critical attention to de Coninck's poetics and aesthetic views. In a recent anthology of Flemish poetry since the sixties, Hotel New Flandres (2008), he is called an innovative "paradigmatic poet" in the poetry system of Flanders. Much less known is his place in and relationship to the field of Afrikaans literature. Daniel Hugo published two anthologies with poetry of de Coninck in Afrikaans and Antjie Krog was invited by the Flemish editor to participate in NWT. Later on, these essays were rewritten and brought together in Krog's Country of My Skull. Reading prose and poetry by de Coninck and focusing on references to South Africa, we can study his perspective on Afrikaans (language and literature), his points of view on social and political developments in the post-apartheid era. The purpose of this article is to present documentary material to illustrate and comment on de Coninck's ideas on literature, language and society. This commentary on ideological and aesthetic opinions can form the basis for further discursive and institutional research with regard to the presence in and the image building of South Africa in the works by a canonized Flemish writer.

The première of Claus' play Het leven en de werken van Leopold II (The Life and Works of Leopold II), in November 1970 (by the company Nederlandse Comedie), was directed by the author himself. After a second and again rather unsuccessful run (1972–1973, Arena, director: J. Tummers) it disappeared from the stage for nearly thirty years: there was no other production of Claus' play in the Low Countries until the autumn of 2002 (KVS, director: R. Ruëll). Undoubtedly Het leven en de werken van Leopold II is one of the lesser-known plays by the Flemish author Hugo Claus (1929–2008). While writing it, at the end of the sixties, Claus was simultaneously working on two poetry collections. Van horen zeggen contains accessible poems, sometimes rather anecdotal, with many references to the contemporary political situation. These poems show a clear affinity with the neo-realistic poetry that was dominant in Dutch-language literature in the sixties. Also in 1970, on the same day as Van horen zeggen, Claus published Heer Everzwijn (Lord Wild Boar), manneristic poetry showing another poeta faber. Given Claus' interest in the history of the Congo Free State (see also the novel De geruchten [The rumours]) and the way he caricatures King Leopold II and his government in Het leven en de werken, it is worth investigating the political and social perspectives articulated in both his drama and his poetry. What are the similarities between the poet and the playwright? How can we explain his interest in the way Leopold mistreated the people of the Congo? In this essay I present the ideological and social points of view adopted by Claus in a broad literary and political context, studying his play on Leopold's atrocities in what would later (in 1908) become a Belgian colony, alongside the poetry he produced in the same period.

From 1969 until 1972 the South-African writer and graphic artist Breyten Breytenbach published 29 poems, prose texts and three drawings in the Dutch experimental periodical Raster(first edition: 1967). H. C. ten Berge, writer, poet and Raster's main editor, attributed Breytenbach an unusually prominentÂposition in his magazine. In the Dutch language area of the late sixties and early seventies, Breytenbach was mostly known for his political engagement within the anti-apartheid movement. Ten Berge, however, also praised his work for its formal and experimental aesthetic qualities. According to Ten Berge experiment and engagement are related to one another in a very unique way. By examining the position of Breytenbach in Raster, the paper presents a documentation of the exceptional literary relationship between Breytenbach and Ten Berge, as well as their shared interest in certain motifs in poetry, the use of a specific metaphoric language (e.g. perception of nature and body) and a common belief in the power of poetic language.