Abstract
This article explores aspects of the contemporary South African poet Douglas Livingstone’s “A littoral zone” (1991) from a narratological point of view, leaning largely on Peter Hühn’s narratological concept of the event and Rachel Blau DuPlessis’ “hypothesis of poetry as segmentivity” as formulated by Brian McHale (2009:18). A discussion of two juxtaposed poems from the said volume explores how the poems’ respective anecdotes and events are segmented, then arranged and sequenced into specific narratives to highlight the speaker’s conviction of the necessity of a biological and spiritual connection with the natural environment. In the larger context of the volume there are numerous other narrative lines (in the form of poems about specific experiences the poet had) that are juxtaposed in a similar fashion. Collectively these juxtaposed narrative lines then constitute on the level of the volume as a whole the autobiographical narrative of the poet’s development as self-ironic individual. The various anecdotes also contribute to the formation and development of the theme of symbiosis, a theme that has a direct bearing on how the poet sees the gap between humankind’s current and supposed connection with nature. The main event of the volume is to be found in the reader’s mind: the realisation that bridging this gap is absolutely necessary and that it starts with the individual.
Highlights
Douglas Livingstone is regarded by some as South Africa’s “first twenty-first century poet” (Chapman, 1995:6), and “South Africa’s most important poet of the late twentieth century” (Glenn & Rybicky, 2006:78) writing in English. He is well-remembered for the poetic exploration of his scientific knowledge, resulting in realistic and undiluted portrayals of natural landscapes, without sacrificing his meticulous sense of poetic lyricism in the process
This article will explore A littoral Zone (1991) – Livingstone’s penultimate volume of poetry – from a narratological point of view to demonstrate the value such an approach has for the elucidation and enrichment of specific themes found in this volume
The poet uses A littoral zone as a map to show the incongruity between humankind’s current position in the world, and where science and history show we belong in terms of our ecological relation with the earth
Summary
Douglas Livingstone is regarded by some as South Africa’s “first twenty-first century poet” (Chapman, 1995:6), and “South Africa’s most important poet of the late twentieth century” (Glenn & Rybicky, 2006:78) writing in English. The poet uses A littoral zone as a map to show the incongruity between humankind’s current position in the world, and where science and history show we belong in terms of our ecological relation with the earth He does this by relating various stories of his and others’ interaction with their natural environment and its creatures, highlighting similarities and differences between the various stories by means of the poems’ specific sequencing. I will use Peter Hühn’s concept of eventfulness in conjunction with Rachel Blau DuPlessis’ “hypothesis of poetry as segmentivity” as formulated by McHale (2009:18), to show how Livingstone juxtaposes small narratives (as poems, or parts of poems) to explain his perception of humankind’s distraught relationship with its natural environments, and how he presents (through the first person speaker) his own actions as apart from the rest of humankind, problematising his position within his own species and, more generally, how he fits into his natural environments
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