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André Brink

アンドレ・ブリンク

Andore Burinku

Aliases: André Philippus Brink

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1935-05-29 （Vrede, South Africa）
Died
2015-02-06 （on a flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to South Africa） age 79
Nationality
South Africa
Languages
Afrikaans, English
Religion
Unknown
Residence History
Vrede, South Africa → Lydenburg, South Africa → Potchefstroom, South Africa → Paris, France → Cape Town, South Africa

Career

Occupations
novelist, essayist, poet, university professor
Active Years
1960-2015
Affiliations
University of Cape Town
Memberships
Sestigers
Influenced By
Ingrid Jonker, Etienne Leroux, Breyten Breytenbach
Nominations
Booker Prize shortlist (Rumours of Rain, 1978), Booker Prize shortlist (An Instant in the Wind, 1975)

Education

University of Potchefstroom
Afrikaans literature
Period: 1950年代
Country: South Africa
Sorbonne University
comparative literature
Degree: 比較文学の学位
Period: 1959-1961
Year of Graduation: 1961
Country: France
Rhodes University
Literature
Degree: PhD
Year of Graduation: 1975
Country: South Africa

Awards

Martin Luther King Memorial Prize
1979
Work: A Dry White Season
Organization: Unknown
Result: winner
Order of Ikhamanga
2000
Organization: President of South Africa
Result: winner
Mondello Prize (Five Continents Award)
1997
Organization: Fondazione Sicilia
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Looking on Darkness

1973 Novel

Set in apartheid South Africa; first Afrikaans novel banned, self-translated to English.

apartheidself-translation

An Instant in the Wind

1975 Novel

Story of a slave woman and escaped convict fleeing together. Booker shortlist.

racefreedom

Rumours of Rain

1978 Novel

Explores moral dilemmas under apartheid. Booker shortlist.

apartheidmorality

A Dry White Season

1979 Novel

White teacher investigates death of black friend under apartheid. Filmed.

apartheidjustice
Adaptations
  • [Film] A Dry White Season / Euzhan Palcy (1989)

A Chain of Voices

1982 Novel

Multi-voiced historical novel about slave rebellion.

slaveryhistory

Bibliography

  • Looking on Darkness (1973)
  • An Instant in the Wind (1975)
  • Rumours of Rain (1978)
  • A Dry White Season (1979)
  • A Chain of Voices (1982)
  • The Wall of the Plague
  • States of Emergency (1989)
  • An Act of Terror (1992)
  • The First Life of Adamastor (1993)
  • On the Contrary (1994)
  • The Ambassador (1995)
  • Imaginings of Sand (1996)
  • Devil's Valley (1998)
  • The Rights of Desire (2000)
  • The Other Side of Silence (2002)
  • Before I Forget (2004)
  • Praying Mantis (2005)
  • The Blue Door (2006)
  • Other Lives (2008)
  • Philida (2012)

Adaptations

  • A Dry White Season adapted into film in 1989

Translations by Author

  • Self-translated own works from Afrikaans to English

Translations of Works

Style & Themes

Literary Style
literary modernismpostmodernist literaturemagic realism
Recurring Motifs
opposition to apartheidinnovation in Afrikaans literaturesocial issues in South Africa

Legacy

Major South African writer who opposed apartheid. As a Sestiger, introduced world literature and modernism to Afrikaans literature.

In Popular Culture

  • In 2011, South African jumping spider Evarcha brinki named after him.

Trivia

  • Married five times.
  • His son Anton Brink is an artist.
  • Wrote the first fully Afrikaans novel banned by the apartheid government.
  • Key figure in the Sestigers movement.