Hete kole op 'n amper koue vuurherd

In this article - the text of the annual P.J. Nienaber Memorial Lecture which was held at Stellenbosch on 11th March 2004 - the author mentions the important bibliographies and lists of sources which Nienaber published and which served as the necessary data and preliminary spadework for the writing of a history of Afrikaans literature. He outlines the main task of the literary historian and refers to the controversy that arose after the publication of his own work in the 1980s. He mentions other publications in the field of literary history, including Michael Chapman's Southern African Literatures, and in conclusion formulates his own vision of what a history of literature ought to be.