The “Pleasure Streets” of Exile: Queer Subjectivities and the Body in Arthur Nortje’s London Poems

Abstract

In this article, I aim to expand our understanding of Arthur Nortje as a poet of “exile” by exploring the dialectic between self-loathing and pleasure, as well as between engagement and isolation, which he portrays performatively through his London poetry. While critics have emphasised Nortje’s “marginality” or “liminality”, both as an “exile” and a “coloured” South African, I draw on the critical writing of Zoë Wicomb in order to extend readings of his poetry beyond this tragic paradigm. I furthermore take up Sarah Nuttall’s suggestion that Nortje’s London poetry describes a degree of immersion within the city and that this aspect of his work demands further study. After tracing Nortje’s playful use of literary influences and his reworking of the trope of flânerie, I provide a series of close readings of poems in which Nortje depicts an exploration of queer subjectivities, staged within the city. In his London poetry, Nortje subverts and eludes fixed racial, sexual, national and class identities. Nortje’s London poetry exemplifies how South African literature was developed in response to the alienating condition of exile, but also through engagement with the places where exile occurred.

 Opsomming

In hierdie artikel probeer ek om ons begrip van Arthur Nortje as 'n digter in “ballingskap” te verbreed – deur die dialektiek tussen selfafkeer en plesier, en tussen betrokkenheid en isolasie, wat hy op performatiewe wyse deur sy Londen-digkuns uitbeeld. Hoewel kritici Nortje se “marginaliteit” of “liminaliteit” beklemtoon het, as 'n “banneling” sowel as ʼn Suid-Afrikaner “van kleur”, put ek uit die kritiese skryfwerk van Zoë Wicomb om die lees van sy digkuns verder as hierdie tragiese paradigma uit te brei. Ek ondersoek ook Sarah Nuttall se idee dat Nortje se Londen-poësie 'n mate van indompeling in die stad beskryf, en dat hierdie aspek van sy werk verder bestudeer moet word. Ná bestudering van Nortje se speelse gebruik van literêre invloede en sy herbewerking van die troop van flânerie, gee ek 'n versameling diepgaande vertolkings van gedigte waarin Nortje 'n verkenning van eienaardige subjektiwiteite in die stad uitbeeld. Nortje se Londen-poësie word gekenmerk deur omverwerping en ontwyking van vaste rasse- seksuele, nasionale en klasidentiteite. Met sy Londen-poësie illustreer Nortje hoe Suid-Afrikaanse literatuur ontwikkel is in reaksie op die vervremende aard van ballingskap, maar ook deur betrokkenheid by die plekke waar ballingskap voorgekom het.