The Dertigers, or "writers of the thirties," are a group of

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

-language South African

poets A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

who achieved new heights of eloquence in the young language's early decades of the 20th century. The Dertigers arose after the Tweede Asem ("Second Breath") writers of the first decades of the 20th century; the year of 1934 is often selected as the breakthrough date for the Dertigers: W.E.G. Louw's ''Die ryke dwaas'' ("The Rich Fool") appeared in that year. The Dertigers strove to write a more emotionally intense, soul-baring poetry than their predecessors. They eschewed gentlemanliness and bourgeois convention in order to produce a more honest and intimate poetry. A further aim of the Dertigers was the effort to achieve a literary greatness that would make its mark in world literature. In an attempt to express their humanity to the fullest, the poetry of the Dertigers has a confessional quality in which the poet seems to be overheard in the midst of a prayer or confession. The resultant effect of these ambitious goals was a heightened respect for the professionalism of the poet; the choice of the precise word stood as an ever-present poetic goal. Nonetheless, the Dertigers continued to refine their language closer to the ''spreektaal'', the "language of the people." While the descriptions of nature that characterized Tweede Asem poets remain, these depictions of the landscape are harnessed to attempts to create mood and atmosphere within the poet's own soul. The leading figures of the Dertigers are the brothers

N. P. van Wyk Louw Nicolaas Petrus van Wyk Louw (11 June 1906 in Sutherland, Cape Colony – 18 June 1970 in Johannesburg), almost universally known as N.P. van Wyk Louw, was an Afrikaans-language poet, playwright and scholar. He was the older brother of Afrikaan ...

and W. E. G. Louw,

Uys Krige Mattheus Uys Krige (4 February 1910 – 10 August 1987) was a South African writer of novels, short stories, poems and plays in Afrikaans and English. In Afrikaans literature, Krige is counted among the '' Dertigers'' ("Writers of the Thirties"). ...

, and

Elisabeth Eybers Elisabeth Françoise Eybers (26 February 1915 – 1 December 2007) was a South African poet. Her poetry was mainly in Afrikaans, although she translated some of her own work (and those of others) into English. Eybers was born in Klerksdorp, ...

. Also associated with this movement are C. M van den Heever, and I. D. du Plessis.

References

{{Reflist South African poets Afrikaner people