Nicolaas Petrus van Wyk Louw

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Nicolaas Petrus van Wyk Louw (born June 11, 1906 in Sutherland , Cape Colony ; † June 18, 1970 in Johannesburg ; mostly NP van Wyk Louw ) was a South African writer and literary scholar. He wrote in Afrikaans and has received numerous South African literary awards. He won the Hertzogprys more often than any other writer.

Life

Louw was born in 1906, the second of four children. A younger brother was the poet WEG Louw .

At the age of 14 Louw moved to Cape Town . In 1926 he obtained a master's degree in German at the University of Cape Town and worked as a teacher in Steynsburg . From 1929 to 1949 he was a lecturer at the University of Cape Town. In 1935, Alleenspraak was his first collection of poems. From 1949 to 1958 he was Professor of Afrikaans at the University of Amsterdam , then he headed the Department for Dutch and Afrikaans at the Johannesburg University of the Witwatersrand .

Texts by Louw and CJ Langenhoven at the Afrikaanse Taalmonument

Louw belonged to the group of Dertigers (German roughly: "Thirties"), an author movement in the 1930s. He won the Hertzogprys five times , the most important prize for literature in Afrikaans. One of his texts was used in the design of the Afrikaanse Taalmonument , which is dedicated to the Afrikaans language.

In 2005 he was posthumously awarded the Order of Ikhamanga in gold. His daughter accepted the award. In addition to his literary achievement, the award highlighted the fact that he had campaigned not for the concerns of the Afrikaans speakers, but also for the rights of the speakers of African languages, including in his epic Raka, in which the black protagonist against a monster fights to save the heritage and language of his tribe.

bibliography

  • 1935: Alleenspraak
  • 1939: Berigte te velde
  • 1939: Lojale moved
  • 1941: Raka (1970 also in German)
  • 1947: Dieper reg
  • 1952: slides
  • 1954: Nuwe Verse
  • 1957: Germanicus
  • 1958: Liberal nasionalisme
  • 1961: Dagboek van 'n soldaat
  • 1962: Tristia en other verse, voorspele en vlugte
  • 1968: Ready for woestyn
  • 1974: Blomme vir die winter
  • 1977: Deurskouende Association

Awards

Literary prizes

  • 1937: Hertzogprys for poetry for Alleenspraak
  • 1940: Hertzogprys for poetry for Die halwe kring
  • 1958: Hertzogprys for prose for Die mens agter die boek, Maskers van die erns, Lojale verset and Berigte te velde
  • 1960: Hertzogprys for drama for Germanicus
  • 1962: CNA Literary Award for Tristia en anders verse, voorspele en vlugte
  • 1965: Hertzogprys for poetry for Tristia en other verse, voorspele en vlugte

Other honors

  • 1948: Honorary doctorate from the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht
  • The NP van Wyk Louw Medal is a medal that was awarded annually around the year 2000 by the Academy of Science of South Africa (formerly the South African Academy for Science and Technology ) to people who had made outstanding contributions to Afrikaans.
  • 2005: Order of Ikhamanga in gold

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b portrait at namibiana.de , accessed on November 7, 2015
  2. ↑ a b c Portrait on the website of the South African Presidential Office (English), accessed on November 7, 2015
  3. ↑ Excerpts from namibiana.de , accessed on November 7, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Louw, Nicolaas Petrus van Wyk
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Louw, NP van Wyk; Wyk Louw, Nicolaas Petrus van
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African writer and literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Sutherland , Cape Colony
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1970
Place of death Johannesburg