Het literaire motto: een raadsel dat om ontcijfering vraagt. Drie motto's in Bidsprinkaan, 'n ware storie (2005) van André P. Brink [Bespreking van: A.P. Brink (2005) Bidsprinkaan: 'n ware storie]

A literary motto can encapsulate various meanings. Not only the quotation itself has significance, but
also the source and the cited author thereof. A writer may borrow authority from the chosen author,
but even express his or her admiration, indebtedness or kindredness. Belonging to the zone between title and text, Jan Erik Antonsen considers the motto as a particularly suitable place for statements from the author. Klaus Beekman claims that the appeal to mottoes implicates a confirmation of a specific notion of literature. It is even possible to indicate in which literary scene or, in the terms of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, in which "champ" an author evidently wants to participate. In this article three mottoes which André P. Brink selected for his novel Bidsprinkaan (2005) will be discussed in the light of these possibilities.