Die invloed van elektroniese media en die totstandkoming van ’n nuwe sosiale paradigma in ’n onlangse Afrikaanse jeugroman

Abstract

This article investigates the influence of modern technology and the forming of a new social paradigm in recent Afrikaans youth novels with specific reference to Die verdrinking van Josua van Eden (2008) by Carina Diedericks Hugo. Modern youth novels make use of modern technology and media to include the modern context of their readers. In this novel the traditional characteristics of the young adult novel are integrated with references to cell phones, the internet, text messages, video games, PlayStation and especially the use of an RPG (role-playing game) in the plot. In recent times there has been quite a shift in Afrikaans novels for young adults towards using the context of modern technology. Elizabeth Dresang, in reflecting on her book Radical change: Books for youth in a digital age (1999), describes this “radical change” as a “spatial, temporal theory, rooted in the belief that authors and illustrators are influenced by the time and place within which they write […] [T]hey are forced to make use of the organizing categories of the real world in which they live” (2008:294). Dresang (1999:17) names the following characteristics of this so called “radical change”: changing forms and formats, changing perspectives and changing boundaries. This would include the use of graphics, nonlinear organisation and interactive formats, multiple perspectives, the use of previously unheard voices, subjects previously forbidden and characters portrayed in complex ways (1999:19–26). She also emphasises the emergence of new types of digital communities (1999:176). Mallan (2008:70) makes the point that the youthful users of electronic media use the alternative identities to communicate in different contexts, to socialise and to gain information.