T. T. Cloete
South African poet and writer (1924–2015)
Theunis Theodorus Cloete (31 May 1924 – 9 July 2015) was a South African Afrikaans poet, Bible translator, essayist and academic. In the 1970s he was involved in the revision of the ''Afrikaanse Kerkgesange'' and later in the 1993 translation of the Bible. Cloete was linked to The University of Potchefstroom's (now North-West University) School of Language and Literature. He has won numerous literary awards, including the Ingrid Jonker Prize, W.A. Hofmeyr Prize, Hertzog Prize (twice) and the Andrew Murray Prize. Cloete mostly wrote under the penname T. Jansen van Rensburg (his grandfather's name) and published numerous of his poems in magazines under the penname to test the water before his 1980 debut Angelliera.
Publications
Poetry
1980 Angelliera
1982 Jukstaposisie
1985 Allotroop
1986 Idiolek
1989 Driepas
1992 Met die aarde praat
1998 Uit die hoek van my oog
2001 Die baie ryk ure: 100 uitgesoekte gedigte
2007 Heilige nuuskierigheid
2010 Uit die wit lig van my land gesny. Vir Anna
2011 Onversadig
2014 Karnaval en Lent
Short stories
1984 Die waarheid gelieg
1997 Identikit
Plays
1986 Onderhoud met ’n bobbejaan
Academic publications
1953 Trekkerswee en Joernaal van Jorik : twee gedigte met historiese materiaal uit twee fases van die Afrikaanse letterkunde
1957 Beskouings oor poësie: ’n bundel opgedra aan prof. G. Dekker op sy sestigste verjaardag 11 November 1957 (met andere)
1961 Die wêreld is ons woning nie: ’n studie van die poësie van Totius met tekste
1963 Totius
1963 Op die woord af: opstelle oor die poësie van N.P. van Wyk Louw
1963 Eugène N. Marais
1966 Gids by D.J. Opperman se Senior Verseboek
1970 Twee idilles: Martjie en Trekkerswee (Blokboek)
1970 Tetralogie van F.A. Venter
1970 Kaneel: Opstelle oor die letterkunde
1972 Sensuur: prinsipieel en prakties besien
1974 Joernaal van Jorik (Blokboek)
1974 N.P. van Wyk Louw, 11 Junie 1906 – 18 Junie 1970
1978 Totius se organiese beskouing (Langenhovengedenklesing)
1980 Die Afrikaanse literatuur sedert sestig
1980 Van Wyk Louw se fundamenteel dramatiese instelling (NP van Wyk Louw-gedenklesing)
1982 Die verhouding tussen die skrywer en sy volk
1982 Hoe om ’n gedig te ontleed (Blokboek)
1984 Wat is literatuur?
1993 Die literatuur en sy verband met die tyd
2004 Van Leopold Tot Achterberg
Editor and co-editor
Die Afrikaanse literatuur sedert sestig (together with A.P. Grové, J.P. Smuts and Elize Botha), 1980
Gids by die literatuurstudie (together with Elize Botha and Charles Malan), 1985
Literêre terme en teorieë (together with Hein Viljoen, Leon Strydom, Heilnadu Plooy and Anne-Marie Bosschoff), 1992
Other
Van Hooft tot Luyken (together with G. Dekker), 1961
Van Hendrik van Veldeke tot Spieghel, 1963
Vyfling, 1966
Faune, 1966
Poort 1972 (together with P.D. van der Walt and L. Dekker) 1973
Totius: Vyftig gedigte, 1876
Lens 78/79 (together with Rudolph Willemse), 1979
Dit kom van ver af, 2002
Translations
Meneer Perrichon gaan op reis – E. Labiche en Ed.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “T. T. Cloete” as south African poet and writer (1924–2015). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as south African poet and writer (1924–2015). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2097662. VIAF identifies the subject as 23462612. The Library of Congress control number is n81063376. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1924, 2015, 1993 and 1980.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “T. T. Cloete” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.