Karel Schoeman’s fictional historiography Skepelinge. Aanloop tot ‘n roman (2017) offers
an alternative representation of the early colonial history at Cape of Good Hope with its
pronounced emphasis on marginalized individuals or groups and unrealized social
potentials of the (hybridized) colonial society. By activating forgotten or concealed
narratives and alternative visions of history and by writing from the position of historical
‘losers’, the text also contains an anti-colonial potential and reveals a constant ideological
struggle in the historiographical representations. The novel therefore fits into the postapartheid literary trend of rewriting (national) history, parodizing canonical texts and
criticizing the ideological strongholds of Afrikaner nationalism.