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“Labyrinth of loneliness”: Breyten Breytenbach’s prison poetry (1976–1985)
Abstract
Breytenbach’s prison poetry is first contextualized as part of a South African subgenre that flourished under apartheid, and then interrogated for its specificities: the singular prison conditions under which he wrote, the nature of the poetry, specific leitmotifs in each of the five volumes published between 1976 and 1985. A psychoanalytic approach is indicated to this strong middle
phase in his extensive poetical oeuvre, comprising seventeen collections of poetry.
phase in his extensive poetical oeuvre, comprising seventeen collections of poetry.