Annel Pieterse

Annel Pieterse (19**-) is an academic, researcher, critic, editor and script consultant.

Biography

Born in Oranjemund, Namibia. Matriculated Pretoria High School for Girls.

Training

Obtained a PhD in English Studies from Stellenbosch University in 2012. Her doctoral thesis, Language Limits: The dissolution of the lyric subject in experimental print and performance poetry [1] (2012), examined South African performance poetry and spoken-word practice, including the work of Lesego Rampolokeng, Kgafela oa Magogodi and Jitsvinger (Quintin Goliath), with particular attention to South African orature: the inheritance of the imbongi (praise poet) as licensed social critic, the emergence of new "literate oralities", and the movement of poetry between voice, print, stage and screen.

Career

Began lecturing part-time in the Drama and English departments at Stellenbosch University in 2010, where she teaches South African theatre, film and media studies. From 2014 to 2018 she was a postdoctoral fellow in the English Department at the University of the Western Cape, researching representations of the supernatural in South African literature, film and media.

She supervises postgraduate research on South African theatre, film and media, including work on the digitisation of theatre in South Africa and, as co-supervisor with the University of Groningen, doctoral research on contemporary Afrikaans cinema.

Her continued interest in orality and performance shaped her involvement in the Stellenbosch Literary Project (which is unfortunately no longer available), through which she helped establish the multilingual InZync poetry sessions in Kayamandi with Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal and Adrian van Wyk

Editorial work

Commissioned and edited content for the Stellenbosch Literary Project's website slipnet.co.za (2011-2015). Associate Reviews Editor of Safundi [2] (2016-2022) and member of its editorial board since 2023.

Publications

Edited Constant Companions: Stories of the South African Supernatural [3] (2018) and co-edited the multilingual translation anthologies Many Tongues (2013, with Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal) and ConVerse: A Translation Anthology of the Best Young Voices in South African Poetry (2018, with Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal and Mbongeni Nomkonwana).

Has published on South African theatre, including Marlene van Niekerk's Die Kortstondige Raklewe van Anastasia W [4] (with Leon de Kock, South African Theatre Journal, 2012), on South African poetry and oral/techno poetics, and on South African film, including a review article on masculinity, violence and queer identity in recent South African cinema [5] (Safundi, 2019).

Media work

Script editor for My Only Story [6] (2019), a true-crime podcast written and narrated by Deon Wiggett in partnership with News24, and bronze winner in the Best Serialized Podcast category at the New York Festivals Radio Awards. Researcher and script consultant for Niggies [7], an Afrikaans television crime drama produced for kykNET.