Khôra en kaar: ’n bespreking van khôra en interpretasie van Marlene van Niekerk se gedig “Woordverklaring”

Khôra and kaar: a discussion of khôra and an interpretation of Marlene van Niekerk's poem "Woordverklaring"What gave rise to this article is the semantic correspondence, namely "container", between the word "kaar" in Marlene van Niekerk's poem "Woordverklaring" (from her anthology Kaar), and the Platonic concept khôra.As an involved philosophical concept, khôra is also associated with a whole spectrum of other meanings.The objective of this article is to investigate the nature of khôra as theoretical framework for the interpretation of the poem.The diverse facets of this complex concept are examined from the perspectives of Neoplatonists, Christian mystics, psychoanalysts, postmodern philosophers, as well as a Christian philosopher.In the light of these findings the poem is subsequently analysed poststructurally by a metaphorical interpretation of kaar as khôra.The anthology Kaar and its reception is firstly discussed.It appeared in 2013, receiving excellent reviews.Crous (2013) describes Van Niekerk as one of few Afrikaans poets who focuses on the etymology of a word with all its Germanic roots.Van Vuuren (2013:34) regards Kaar as a postmodern anthology, and Bezuidenhout (2013) refers to Van Niekerk's gift of seeing one matter in terms of another, and of even letting a whole poem function as an expanded metaphor."Woordverklaring" is an example of such a poem.Based on the link between kaar and khôra, "Woordverklaring" lends itself to a poststructuralist approach from which the poem is analysed and interpreted.In the first stanza of "Woordverklaring" (Van Niekerk 2013:20) the poet explains the meaning of kaar -also the title of the anthology -and calls it a beautiful old Dutch word.Kaar is described as a container (for honey, fish, ice water), a boat, a beehive, a niche above a glacier crevasse, a basin-shaped valley, a funnel (for wheat), and the mouth of St Ambrose.These meanings basically correspond with those of this headword in the Nederlandse Encyclopedie (2023).Khôra is derived from the Greek word χώρα, which means "the space where something is, or any generic place" (Liddell and Scott 1940).Similar to kaar, khôra is defined as "receptacle" in Plato's Timaeus (respectively 49a and 51a): "receptacle [...] of all creation"; also, "an invisible, formless receptacle of everything, which is in some highly obscure fashion linked with the intelligible realm" (Plato 2008:40, 43).However, this philosophical concept is far more complex and fascinating than the simple meaning of "container" and khôra is consequently examined in detail.This examination brings to light four main aspects of khôra: as container, as womb, as moving, as apophatic.It is identified as a container without being or character, but which offers the potential for creation and meaning, and a place which is already there.From a Derridean perspective, it is the place of deconstruction, the aporia, where meaning is elusive and is endlessly deferred.Kristeva, inter alia, describes khôra as womb and matrix, but without nurturance or care because it is totally without character.In a Christian context, the Virgin Mary is seen as die "bearer of God", "replication of the khora in the body" (Sallis quoted in Isar 2009b:40).In the Kariye Müzesi (Khôra monastery) outside Istanbul, Mary is iconically portrayed as khôra in the Byzantine style, with Christ in an egg-shaped container which represents her womb.