Re-reading Fatima Meer's Prison Diary and art through the lens of Saidiya Hartman's concept of ‘stealing away’

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper interprets and analyses the concept of stealing away, as a redemptive act, that can be embodied in alternative modes such as writing, painting and drawing. The paper articulates how the pained body – which in this case is understood as the black body – emerges in an oppressive environment. This paper considers prison letters and artwork as redefinition, redress, and reconfiguration of the pained body. The core of this discussion is founded on how Fatima Meer steals away through her writing and artwork while she is imprisoned. These actions constitute self-affirmation over oppression which essentially exemplifies how Saidiya Hartman expresses stealing away as a concept. It is through acts of stealing away that Meer experiences embodied writing, which is about bringing the finely textured experiences of the body to the art of writing. In so doing the pained experiences of the body [Meer] are reclaimed from oppression through writing, drawing and painting.