Peter Horn
Encyclopedia
Peter Rudolf Gisela Horn, born 7 December 1934 in Teplice
Czechoslovakia
(currently in Czech Republic
). He is a well-known South African poet, who made his mark especially with his anti-Apartheid poetry. At the end of World War II
he had to flee from his home and settled with his parents first in Bavaria
and later in Freiburg
im Breisgau, where he completed high school in 1954. He then emigrated with his parents to South Africa
.
and the College of Education (Johannesburg). He worked for some time as a packer, builder, lab assistant, photographer, insurance agent, and a teacher. He then taught at University of the Witwatersrand, the University of South Africa
and the University of Zululand
. He was professor and head of department of German at the University of Cape Town
(1974–1999).
He is now Honorary Professor and Research Associate at the University of the Witwatersrand. http://www.wits.ac.za/academic/humanities/slls/staff/7637/staff_profiles.html
Lionel Abrahams
said that his poetry "is overwhelmingly the record of his responses to aspects of the South African system, which he scrutinises not in a nakedly personal way but, rather in the manner of his master Brecht
, through the equipment of a revolutionary critique.".
Dirk Klopper in wrote:
Rod MacKenzie wrote in:
In Michael Chapman wrote:
And Peter Galli wrote in a review in:
Andries Walter Oliphant described "The Rivers Which Connect us to the Past": "These broad themes are given an African inflection and expressed with consummate craft in a variety of poetic modalities.", Jane Rosenthal described Horn's stories, as "ranging from the drily satirical to recreations of horror and dementia", they "leave an impression of savage intensity. Waiting for Mandela, one of the lighter stories, is about a pickpocket who attends the release rally with loot in mind. Here Horn achieves a bizarre and telling counterpoint of the apolitical indifference of this singleminded "skelm" with the lyrical majesty of Mandela.'s speech".
: (Honourable Mention for Poems 1964-1989, the 1993 Alex La Guma/Bessie Head Award for The Kaffir who read Books (published as My Voice is under Control now); he was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cape Town in 1994; in 2000 he was awarded the Charles Herman Bosman Prize for My Voice is under Control now; in 2000 he was a Finalist for the Caine Prize
for African Literature. He received the SALA Literary Lifetime Award 2011. He served on the COSAW (Congress of South African Writers
) Western Cape Executive (1988–1990); the COSAW National Executive (1991–1992), as an Honorary Vice President NUSAS (1977–1981); a Trustee of the South African Prisoners' Educational Trust Fund (1980–1985); Interim Committee of the Unemployed Workers' Movement (1984/5). He was awarded the Life Time Literary Achievement Award of the South African Literary Awards (2010)
Teplice
Teplice , Teplice-Šanov until 1948 is a town in the Czech Republic, the capital of the Teplice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region. It is the state's second largest spa town ....
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
(currently in Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
). He is a well-known South African poet, who made his mark especially with his anti-Apartheid poetry. At the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he had to flee from his home and settled with his parents first in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
and later in Freiburg
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
im Breisgau, where he completed high school in 1954. He then emigrated with his parents to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
Education and career
He attended the primary school in Schönau; the Gymnasium in Teplice (1945); Donauwörth (1945-1950); Berthold-Gymnasium in Freiburg (Brsg) (1950-1954).He studied at the University of the WitwatersrandUniversity of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...
and the College of Education (Johannesburg). He worked for some time as a packer, builder, lab assistant, photographer, insurance agent, and a teacher. He then taught at University of the Witwatersrand, the University of South Africa
University of South Africa
The University of South Africa is a distance education university, with headquarters in Pretoria, South Africa. With approximately 300 000 enrolled students, it qualifies as one of the world's mega universities.-History:...
and the University of Zululand
University of Zululand
The University of Zululand has been designated to serve as the only comprehensive tertiary educational institution north of the uThukela River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Its new status is in accordance with South Africa's National Plan for Higher Education aimed at eradicating inequity and...
. He was professor and head of department of German at the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
(1974–1999).
He is now Honorary Professor and Research Associate at the University of the Witwatersrand. http://www.wits.ac.za/academic/humanities/slls/staff/7637/staff_profiles.html
Poetry and short stories
His poetry has been characterised by Jacques Alvarez-Pereyre as follows:
Totalitarian regimes have the citizens and poets they deserve, those who accept the bayonets upon which order is based and who, by their silence or useless chatter, make themselves the accomplices of those who rule. Peter Horn' is not one of these: he has chosen to be on the side of the oppressed, on the side of the future, of the dream of a multiracial society, in short, on the side of freedom.,
Lionel Abrahams
Lionel Abrahams
Lionel Abrahams was a South African novelist, poet, editor, critic, essayist and publisher. He was born in Johannesburg, where he lived his entire life...
said that his poetry "is overwhelmingly the record of his responses to aspects of the South African system, which he scrutinises not in a nakedly personal way but, rather in the manner of his master Brecht
Brecht
Brecht is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Brecht proper, Sint-Job-in't-Goor and Sint-Lenaarts. On January 1, 2006 Brecht had a total population of 26,464...
, through the equipment of a revolutionary critique.".
Dirk Klopper in wrote:
"Inasmuch as Horn's poems are both unashamedly political and highly crafted, they demonstrate that materialist and formalist concerns are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and that it is possible for a poet to dedicate his writing to a political cause without automatically sacrificing technical achievement [...]The ten poems that comprise The Plumstead Elegies constitute a sustained meditation on the nature and function of poetry in a society riven by violence, injustice and exploitation. In these elegies, Horn re-examines the basis of his writing and recommits himself to finding an appropriate poetic voice."
Rod MacKenzie wrote in:
This book stands among the most necessary writing that has been produced in this country in the last quarter of a century. Horn has wrenched his poetic syntax away from the prosody and forms of European traditions. He has forged a blunt, at times brutal rhythm as part of a poetic vehicle whose project is to remind a society of itself politically and socially. With marked success he makes "socially privileged" readers/listeners angry, uncomfortable [...] Horn's output is often compelled by an intense, burning anger, that, when focused, creates the most moving and elegiac poetry. It would reach into any person with a shred of compassion.
In Michael Chapman wrote:
Horn strips away not only metaphor but also any hints of 'poetic' beauty [...] Horn's lines as far as some readers are concerned will seem to lack beauty, in that language is washed of poetic figures. But for others again, his poetry may have a powerful resonance, carried primarily in ideas rather than images [...] 'individuality' is eliminated in favour of the collective self. In the above lines, there is accord between social and personal projections, for the informing intelligence is one that has been politicized. It is perhaps not surprising that Horn's anti-poetic approach should have affinities with that of the 'new austerity' of much of European poetry produced since World War II. [...] It is Horn's achievement to have shown that an art of the unattractive can have its own kind of 'beauty'.
And Peter Galli wrote in a review in:
He admits his own role, fears, doubts and inadequacies, while questioning the function, role and nature of poetry. His often diverse and contradictory perceptions and reactions to the continually changing political sphere add to the work's credibility as a realistic exposé of the SA political situation over time.
Andries Walter Oliphant described "The Rivers Which Connect us to the Past": "These broad themes are given an African inflection and expressed with consummate craft in a variety of poetic modalities.", Jane Rosenthal described Horn's stories, as "ranging from the drily satirical to recreations of horror and dementia", they "leave an impression of savage intensity. Waiting for Mandela, one of the lighter stories, is about a pickpocket who attends the release rally with loot in mind. Here Horn achieves a bizarre and telling counterpoint of the apolitical indifference of this singleminded "skelm" with the lyrical majesty of Mandela.'s speech".
Prizes and honours
Among the many prizes were the 1992 Noma AwardNoma Award
The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa is a $10,000 prize for outstanding African writers and scholars who publish in Africa. Established in 1979, the award is annual and given to any new book published in three categories: literature, juvenile and scholarly...
: (Honourable Mention for Poems 1964-1989, the 1993 Alex La Guma/Bessie Head Award for The Kaffir who read Books (published as My Voice is under Control now); he was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cape Town in 1994; in 2000 he was awarded the Charles Herman Bosman Prize for My Voice is under Control now; in 2000 he was a Finalist for the Caine Prize
Caine Prize
The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 2000, and was named in memory of the late Sir Michael...
for African Literature. He received the SALA Literary Lifetime Award 2011. He served on the COSAW (Congress of South African Writers
Congress of South African Writers
The Congress of South African Writers is a South African grassroots writer’s organisation.Launched in July 1987, its initial aims were to promote literature and redress the imbalances of apartheid education...
) Western Cape Executive (1988–1990); the COSAW National Executive (1991–1992), as an Honorary Vice President NUSAS (1977–1981); a Trustee of the South African Prisoners' Educational Trust Fund (1980–1985); Interim Committee of the Unemployed Workers' Movement (1984/5). He was awarded the Life Time Literary Achievement Award of the South African Literary Awards (2010)
Poetry
- Voices from the Gallows Trees. (Poems) Ophir (1969)
- Walking through our sleep. (Poems) Ravan Press (1974)
- Silence in Jail. (Poems: banned). Scribe Press (1979)
- The Civil War Cantos. (Poems: banned) Scribe Press (1987)
- Poems 1964 -1990. Johannesburg: Ravan (1991)
- An Axe in the Ice. Poems. Johannesburg: COSAW Publishing House 1992
- Derrière le vernis du soleil, poèmes 1964-1989. Choisis et traduit de l’anglais sud-africain par Jacques Alavarez-Péreyre. Dessins de Nils Burwitz. Paris: europePoesie (1993)
- The Rivers that Connect us to the Past. Survivors. Poems. Belville: Mayibuye Press 1996
- Poems. Translated into Bangla by Aminur Rahman. Montreal, Dhaka, London: SACAC, KATHAK 2003
Criticism
- Heinrich von Kleists Erzählungen. Eine Einführung. (Sprache+Literatur+Didaktik) (Scriptor Taschenbuch S 141). Scriptor (1978).
- Kleist-Chronik. Athenäum (1980) 140 S.
- Writing my Reading. Essays on Literary Politics in South Africa. Amsterdam/Atlanta : Rodopi Press 1994 [recte: 1995] (= Cross/Cultures - Readings in Post/Colonial Literatures in English 15).
- Das Wissen der Weltbuerger (with Anette Horn), Athena Verlag (2008)
- Verbale Gewalt oder Kleist auf der Couch. Ueber die Problematik der Psychoanalyse von literarischen Texten , Athena Verlag (2009);
- ‘Ich lerne sehen’. Zu Rilkes Lyrik (with Anette Horn), Athena Verlag (2010);
- Die Garne der Fischer der Irrsee. Zur Lyrik von Paul Celan, Athena Verlag (2011);
- Im Liede wehet ihr Geist. Hölderlins Späte Hymnen. Athena Verlag (Forthcoming: 2012)
Sources
- Sevry, Jean. 'Peter Horn: Introducing a South African Poet.' (Interview with P Horn, August 1992) Commonwealth Essays and Studies 16 (l): p. 104-113, 1993
- Berold, Robert.. 'Interview.' (Interview with P Horn, including discussion of poetry in the 'new' South Africa) New Coin 31 (l): p. 31-41, 1995.
- See also: Literature of South AfricaLiterature of South AfricaSouth African literature is the literature of South Africa which has 11 national languages, Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Pedi, Tswana, Venda, SiSwati, Tsonga, and Ndebele.-Overview:...
and Peter Horn's home page: http://prghorn.kilu2.de/start.htm