Advocating a return to Jungian archetypal theory, I argue that the masculinity of the archetype may be as successfully performed by a female hero as by a male hero. Neither of these positions take archetypal heroism into account. Scholarly arguments tend towards two positions: that a female hero is an oxymoron or that she should be limited to battles on behalf of women in which she champions feminine characteristics and challenges the belief that femininity is not heroic. This article demonstrates, however, that she continues to generate ambivalence and that the primary reservation of most scholars is that a female hero either cannot or should not perform the masculinity of the archetype. The mass-appearance of female heroes in popular culture in recent decades may encourage the opinion that the female hero has achieved the same credibility as her male counterpart. A psychoanalytic approach will be taken in exploring the monster, the decay of the psyche and the descent into primordial chaos and madness that occurs within the story. Koert symbolises the dying country rife with corruption, HIV/Aids, moral decay, starvation and total social disintegration. Even his language, usually symbolic of order, is incoherent as he communicates in a bizarre mixture of nonsensical German, English and Afrikaans.

He is grotesquely fat, dying and has gangrene in his leg.

Koert (Kurtz) disappears into the chaos that South Africa has become and Marlouw goes on a treacherous journey to find Koert. Hence, Horrelpoot is an Afrikaans Heart of Darkness. The title of the novel refers to Marlouw's clubfoot, indicating not only his physical deformity, but also his deformity of spirit. His sister asks him to find her son, Koert, with whom she has lost contact, in South Africa. Venter explores this South Africa of chaos and mayhem from the point of view of Martin Jasper Louw (Marlouw) who lives in Melbourne. South African author Eben Venter explores an apocalyptic, post-apartheid South Africa in his novel, Horrelpoot (Club Foot).

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