A.C. Bouman

A.C. Bouman (1892-1966) was an academic, critic and playwright.

Born Arie Cornelis Bouman in Sommelsdijk Netherlands, he studied Dutch language and literature at the University of Utrecht, obtaining a doctorate in 1918 on Bijdrage tot de syntaxis der ‘dat’-zinnen in het Germaansch. In 1919 he began work at the Rijksarchief in Utrecht. In 1921 he accepted a position as professor of germanic philology at the Stellenbosch University, where he taught for twenty-five years. In 1946 he returned to the Netherlands to become professor of general linguistics at the Rijksuniversiteit of Leiden. He retired at Leiden in 1962 and died there.

While in South Africa, he was an influential voice, writing about language, culture, literature and art.

His academic work includes a Dutch edition of the medieval Dutch poem Beatrijs as well as an Afrikaans translation (Beatrys, 1968)??** and (edited with E.C. Pienaar), a book on Afrikaans grammar called Afrikaanse Spraakkuns (1924).

His art publications include Kuns in Suid-Afrika (HAUM, 1938) and  Painters in South Africa. Capetown (1951).

As theatre reviewer and critic he reviewed The Master Builder by the Unie-Debatsvereniging in Stellenbosch for Die Burger. (1926 ),

He wrote and published three plays, two in Afrikaans, namely Nerina van Drakenstein (1936) and Dieu et Mon Droit of Die Heilige Pand (1939). The latter was especially written for the Huguenot Festival in 1939, and performed in Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth. His other play was in Dutch, called De Vikings in Byzantium, (1929).

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