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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Series | Book | Chapter

226889

Ingrid de Kok's "A room full of questions" and South Africa's truth and reconciliation commission

Michael Sharp

pp. 125-143

Abstract

Michael Sharp's chapter outlines the courageous work of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and focuses on a sequence of 12 poems entitled "A Room Full of Questions' in Ingrid de Kok's Terrestrial Things (2004). The poems emphasize not only the Commission's "invisible mending of the heart" but also the rendering of certain ineradicable moments that are now part of the new republic's cultural "dialect of record." If South Africa were to remain "this stained" place, as de Kok has written, then the poet must continue to speak for those who fell into apartheid's "web of infinite" sorrow.

Publication details

Published in:

Kalu Kenneth, Falola Toyin (2019) Exploitation and misrule in colonial and postcolonial Africa. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pages: 125-143

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-96496-6_6

Full citation:

Sharp Michael (2019) „Ingrid de Kok's "A room full of questions" and South Africa's truth and reconciliation commission“, In: K. Kalu & T. Falola (eds.), Exploitation and misrule in colonial and postcolonial Africa, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 125–143.