Charlotte Van den Broeck

Acht, ∞ - VI. [een goochelaar zaagt me in twee stukken]

Language: dutch

Translations: german (Acht, ∞ - VI. [ein Gaukler sägt mich in zwei Teile])

Acht, ∞ - VI. [een goochelaar zaagt me in twee stukken]

VI.

een goochelaar zaagt me in twee stukken en klapt me open
naar het publiek mijn lege romp onthuld na de nacht, na de slag
waarin ik generaal en sterveling werd, grond en organen verloor
jou vergat door de trompetten van de optocht in mij
bij het achteromkijken al zag ik hoe je je jas van de kapstok zou nemen
een klein, finaal gebaar, de teleurgang tussen schouderbladen
en toch gemarcheerd, verder het diepe in, verder dan de blinde klip
daar in inkeer uiteengevallen – natuurlijk, in wat anders
dan in een kermend geluid? het verraadt me op het podium
iedereen kijkt, ik zeg nog ‘liefste’ en ‘weigering’
en ‘vergeef me’, maar het applaus is eindeloos
na afloop word ik niet gehecht

Charlotte Van den Broeck

photo © Stephan Vanfleteren

* 29.06.1991, Turnhout, Belgium
lives in: Turnhout, Belgium

Charlotte Van den Broeck won her poetical spurs in a similar way to Maud Vanhauwaert, namely onstage. The accompanying familiarity of her name provided her debut Chameleon with the necessary impetus. Chameleon would appear to be the perfect title for a debut volume of poetry. Changeability is the chameleon’s foremost characteristic: the animal adopts various colours depending on its surroundings at any given time. By giving her first book this title, Charlotte Van den Broeck seems to be aware of the fact that not all the poems are of equal strength, but are still part of her identity. The possible criticism overcome by this attitude distances it from the Schein des Naiven that Friedrich Schiller ascribes to the female gender in the motto prefacing the volume.

photo © Stephan Vanfleteren für Ehrengast Flandern und die Niederlande FBM16’

At the same time, the chameleon’s changeable and convertible nature is an appropriate image to summarise the search for female identity in this volume. The poems deal with landscapes, the relationship with her grandfather, with a lover and especially with her mother, but the recurring theme is that of an I in search of identity. However, this identity appears as something difficult to attain, because it is inherent in a process of continuous assimilation to others and what is other (‘I am however available in various flavours’ as the poem ‘Charlotte Pudding’ has it) and of reacting against this (‘the mother is a stone’, as a line says in ‘Genealogy’). The conquest of the self lies in this double bind that a chameleon puts into practice on a daily basis.

The poems only appear naïve. They seem to have been written down as a direct reflection of performance poetry, but also effectively display sublayers hinting at greater coherence and themes. They are lyrical in the sense that their eloquence fans out in all directions with many surprising images, but also with a reprisal of images, such as the stone in varying contexts, which forces the reader to reread the book, to return to earlier poems.

Chameleon marks Charlotte Van den Broeck’s successful and promising debut.

Charlotte Van den Broeck (1991) holds an MA in English-German language and literature and is now studying Verbal Arts at the Antwerp conservatory. She twice reached the top 100 of the Turing National Poetry Prize and published in Het Liegend Konijn. She is already a household name as a performance poet. In 2015, on the advent of her debut volume Chameleon, she was added to the line-up of the Saint Amour tour through Belgium and the Netherlands.

English translation: Willem Groenewegen

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