I like to think instead: percorsi di dissidenza nella poesia di Ingrid de Kok

Abstract

Aim of this article is to explore some paths of meaning in the lyrics of the South African poet Ingrid de Kok. I will analyse her relationship with the history of her country in various collections and the difficult balance between collective and personal ethos, trying to highlight her linguistic search for ethical spaces not colonized by the widespread and still racially loaded ideologies of her country. One of the main features in de Kok’s poetry, I think, is her capacity to allow opposing realities to coexhist. My article will deal with the notion of juxtaposition the way it comes across in some of her poems, both from a linguistic point of view and in terms of its imagery.