"Conjuring up her wholeness": Post-transitional black South African women's poetry and its restorative ethic. (3rd May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Boswell, Barbara
• Is Part Of: Scrutiny2. Volume 21:Number 2(2016)
• Page Start: 8
• Page End: 26
• Publication Date: 2016-05-03
• Subjects: Black women's poetry -- post-transitional literature -- embodiment -- diaspora -- re-memory -- gender justice -- South African poetry; English philology -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa -- Periodicals; South African literature (English) -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa -- Periodicals; 428
• DOI: 10.1080/18125441.2016.1192675
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1812-5441

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This essay surveys poetry by black South African women published since 2005 as a means of critically engaging the post-transitional literary paradigm. It notes the ways in which black women's poetry has expanded from apartheid and transitionary modes of writing to include four broad categories: gender justice, the body, diasporic identity and re-memorying history. It argues that black women's poetry that inhabits these four literary modes produces a restorative ethic, which seeks to restore and repair histories and subjectivites fractured by colonialism and apartheid.