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

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.