{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.014992503748125937, 'fraction_numerical': 0.005997001499250375, 'mean_word_length': 5.418269230769231, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
In pursuit of the subject: towards a biography of Arthur Nortje

This article presents the conceptual framework and methodological approach I have adopted in my research towards a biography of the South African poet Arthur Nortje (1942–1970). It begins by identifying the principles of biographical unity advocated by James Boswell, and adopted by subsequent biographers, and proceeds to question the validity of these principles in the light of contemporary reflections on the nature of the subject, language, and narrative. As an alternative to traditional principles of biographical unity, which have evolved in parallel with the principles governing realist fiction, the article proposes the notion of a ‘dialectic of difference’ in the life and work of Nortje, discussing how this dialectic not only differentiates Nortje as subject but is also the subject of his writings. Following consideration of the forms of evidence available to the biographer, the biographical material to hand on Nortje is described and its potential significance indicated in reconstructing the life‐story in the form of a postcolonial biography. The discussion pulls together the various lines of enquiry by reflecting on the implications of reconstructing the life as a discursive event before concluding with an invocation of the subject in process.