Clivia cyrtanthiflorus (Japanese hybrid) Photo by Jim Holmes

Prof. Louise Viljoen Department of Afrikaans and Dutch University of Stellenbosch Private Box X1 7602 Matieland Tel. (021) 808 2157 Webpage at US

Academic and literary critic
Compiler of an anthology of Afrikaans poetry
Professor in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, Stellenbosch University

Louise Viljoen (neé Van Zyl) was born on 22 August 1954 in Vredenburg. She studied at the University of Stellenbosch, obtaining an MA-degree with a thesis on the work of Etienne Leroux and a doctorate with a dissertation on the work of Breyten Breytenbach. She teaches in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of Stellenbosch. She has published more than 40 articles in scientific journals, books and conference proceedings, regularly reviews books for newpapers and magazines and often adjudicates literary prizes. She has been guest lecturer at the Universities of Leuven and Amsterdam as well as several South African universities. Her research interest lies in the field of Afrikaans literature and literary theory with a special focus on postmodernism, postcolonialism, gender as well as space and identity.

Book contribution: On Space and Identity in Antjie Krog's Country of my Skull (co-author) In: De Geest, Dirk e.a. Links for the Site of Literary Theory. Essays in Honour of Hendrik van Gorp. Leuven: Leuven University Press: 39-61, 2000