Karel Schoeman (born 26 October 1939 in Trompsburg, South Africa) is a South African novelist, historian, translator and man of letters. The author of 18 novels and numerous works of history, he is one of South Africa's most awarded and highly-regarded authors. Although several of Schoeman's non-fiction works are available in English, he has chosen to write primarily in Afrikaans. Few of his novels have been translated into other languages.
In 1999, on the occasion of Nelson Mandela's retirement, Schoeman was one of only two living South African writers to be honoured with a State President's Award.
There are numerous published essays and articles dealing with Schoeman's literary oeuvre, as well as to an increasing extent with his historical works. The leading guide to his work, however, is a combined selection of previously published articles, enriched by specialist conference contributions, rewritten as chapters afterwards, and based upon a conference dedicated to his legacy which was held at The University of Johannesburg in 2000.
This ingenious strategy allows both the curious reader and serious researchers in Southern African studies to access a good spectrum of representative critical assessments of his work. Moreover, the book has been edited by two leading scholars in the field of Afrikaans literature, i.e. Willie Burger and Helize van Vuuren.
The title, Sluiswagter by die Dam van Stemme: Beskouings oor die Werk van Karel Schoeman (Pretoria: Protea, 2002), borrows imagery derived from some of his later, significant novels, and hints at the unique literary and historical niche which Schoeman, as writer of fiction, and historian, has created for himself in the literary landscape of the country. As a guardian at the dammed up wall of forgotten voices from the past, the title suggests, this outsider-artist figure has guided those unheard voices to expression within the narrative landscape that he has given birth to through his writing.
Even though the title is Afrikaans, the book contains some useful contributions in English which facilitate considerations of Schoeman's works within a broader South African and international perspective. This collection also contains a transcription of an interview with Karel Schoeman, dating from 1998, one of only a very few he has given during his life.
Sluiswagter is structured in a way which enables even a novice Schoeman reader to become acquainted - easily and with much useful insight - with detailed discussions of his books, and summaries of critical views, thematic preoccupations and literary approaches. In this regard, chapters by one of the editors, Helize van Vuuren, in addition to Gert Jooste and Carl Kieck, provide oeuvre overviews of Schoeman's work, and help to reveal the impressive scope and consistent thematic trajectory which has been present in the author's works since the 1960s.
Carl Kieck's proposed Jungian approach in particular provides an important interpretative key with which to complete the array of approaches that has been forwarded over the years in order to unlock Schoeman's elusive literary art. Another noteworthy contribution - and equally necessary - is that by the renowned South African historian Hermann Giliomee, who comments upon the prolific historiographical legacy of the writer in greater detail.
Specific contributions, often in relation to an individual work, are provided after the overview chapters by many well-known names in relation to South African literature, and Schoeman's work in particular. A few of these, to highlight, with either older or new contributions, are written by Hans Ester, J.M. Coetzee, Henriette Roos, Luc Renders, Chris van der Merwe, Willie Burger - the other editor - and Philip John.
Another useful feature is that the book lists most of the secondary works on Schoeman up to 2001. Much, however, still needs to be done to introduce Schoeman to an international audience. Nonetheless, as more and more translations and adaptations of his works are done, the importance of this writer within a Southern African context, is becoming steadily more apparent, and will no doubt be established before long.
