Abstract:
The creation of “poetic bodies”refers to the embodiment of poetic experiencethroughan eclectic theoretical and methodological conceptualisation. This poetic embodiment allows for there-memberingandexperiencing ofpoetictexts in general, and specifically,indigenous South Africanpoetry in the classroom. At its core is the hauntingof memory in poetic texts: the inter-generational experiencing of poetry is embodied in the students’responses to literature. Conjuring these poetic bodiescomprises three acts of meaning-making that are woven together to create a uniqueexperienceand understandingof poetry: the Bodily, which refers to the figurative devices and images in poetry; the InnerBodily, whichrelates to intergenerational memory construction; and the Outer Bodily, which encompasses social, cultural and historical contexts.In South Africa, theprocess of poetic embodiment is characterised by a strong sense of loss due to the country’scolonial and apartheid past. Theweavingof the different levels of re-memberingand experiencingin indigenous South African poetry is illustrated in the war poetry of S.E.K. Mqhayi (1875–1945). His poems are used as a case study to illustrate how poetic bodiesmay be re-membered or reconstructedas a literary-theoretical approach to facilitate understandingand experiencingpoetry with marked traces of loss.
