Born in Africa But...

Little is known abroad about South Africa s rich contemporary poetic tradition. Few studies have been published on contemporary South African poetry and even less about South African women s poetry, in spite of their rich and vibrant contribution to the poetry scene in the country. The title of this dissertation on South African poetry points to its limited scope necessitated by the vast amount of literary material available. The study itself is dedicated to South African post-Apartheid women's poetry. While working with the primary texts, the poems themselves, the focus is on the different aspects of identity which portray the major topics of South African poetry at present. The second and main part of the study looks at the most prominent recurring themes of contemporary South African women s poetry: ethnic identity, identity within individual groups of society and the depiction of the relations between the ethnic groups, is treated in Chapter VI, gender identity, a discussion of gender problems and womanhood and motherhood, treated in Chapter VII and professional identity, being an artist, a woman poet, treated in Chapter VIII.