Poetic bodies : weavings of bodies, languages and environments in war poetry by S.E.K. Mqhayi

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Authors

Genis, Gerhard

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University of Johannesburg and Unisa Press

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.

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Keywords

Poetic bodies, Embodiment, Re-membering, Intergenerational trauma, War poetry, Indigenous poetry, S.E.K. Mqhayi (1875–1945)

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Citation

Genis, G. 2020, 'Poetic bodies : weavings of bodies, languages and environments in war poetry by S.E.K. Mqhayi', Education as Change, vol. 24, art. 7961, pp. 1-20.