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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Autobiography and the 'Power of Writing': Political Prison Writing in the Apartheid Era
Author:Gready, PaulISNI
Year:1993
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:19
Issue:3
Period:September
Pages:489-523
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:apartheid
offences against national security
literature
autobiography
Politics and Government
Literature, Mass Media and the Press
Law, Human Rights and Violence
Ethnic and Race Relations
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636913
Abstract:This article argues that to be a political prisoner is to be relentlessly rewritten within the official 'power of writing'. Apartheid's 'power of writing' served to isolate, to discredit, to destroy, to rewrite everything and everyone to serve a political end. Through such mediums as statements made during interrogation, legislation, the political trial and prison regulations, political prisoners in South Africa were rigorously and violently rewritten. And yet, challenging the enveloping apartheid lie were rival 'powers of writing'. While prisoners had little or no control over the manner in which they were captured and fixed in official writing, other forms, from scratched messages on cell walls to the writing of autobiographical accounts, provided a way of regaining control. This article analyses autobiographical prison writing by B. Breytenbach, M. Dingake, M. Dlamini, R. First, H. Lewin, E. Mashinini, I. Naidoo, M. Pheto, A. Sachs, and D. Zwelonke. Special attention is paid to the place of Robben Island in these writings. Notes, ref.
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