Scielo RSS http://www.scielo.org.za/rss.php?pid=2219-823720180001&lang=en vol. 39 num. 1 lang. en http://www.scielo.org.za/img/en/fbpelogp.gif http://www.scielo.org.za http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100001&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en In Etosha (2010) the impact and aftereffect of the colonial system on the Etosha Nasional Park in Namibia, and on the people who lived there, is portrayed. This study explores the situations of various characters and groups who formerly resided there, focusing on aspects of their relationship with one another, as well as on the realities of colonial exploitation and the use or destruction of the natural environment. The question raised is how green postcolonialism takes form in this novel as a result of the convergence of conservation oriented and postcolonial perspectives. The study focuses on the ways Etosha challenges the reader to realise the full complexity of the question, 'Who is actually right, what is justifiable in the battle for survival?', specifically in our local context; and on how the reader is confronted with the task to find place-specific answers for questions aimed at our situation in Africa. It is found that the situations of various role players and their different viewpoints are depicted in a nuanced and convincing manner, contributing to the realistic portrayal of the complex issue of conservation versus exploitation in the postcolonial context. Etosha is a meaningful novel when evaluated within the context of the development of ecocriticism in South Africa. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100002&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article focuses on the characterisation of S'ncamtho toponyms in Bulawayo and it goes on to measure the impact of these toponyms on the population of Bulawayo dwellers. S'ncamtho is an urban youth variety that is built on urbanity and streetwise style. The study assumes that, as S'ncamtho is the language of the youth in Bulawayo, people are exposed to S'ncamtho toponyms as the youth are found in all spheres of urban life in Bulawayo, especially the taxi industry which is used by the majority of people in the city. The research collected S'ncamtho verbal toponyms from Godini taxi rank in Bulawayo through undisclosed nonparticipant observations and some from the intuition of the researcher. Intuition and interviews were used to get the etymology of the toponyms and questionnaire tests of familiarity and usage were used to measure the impact of these toponyms on the population. Content analysis is used to characterise and classify S'ncamtho toponyms in Bulawayo and the metaphor comprehension test is used to measure their impact on the population. This article assumes that S'ncamtho has its own toponyms for locations in the city and that these are popular, especially with the youth, but people across age groups now use them. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Koos Roets's contribution to the Afrikaans film industry is widely recognised. Nevertheless, very little has been published specifically about his role in the Afrikaans film industry, although many studies exist about his collaborators such as Jans Rautenbach and Katinka Heyns. This article investigates Roets's collaboration network by means of a network analysis, and identifies the persons with whom he collaborated the most, indicating his varied roles on different films. It is also indicated that he not only is and was an important role-player in his own right in this industry, but has also collaborated with many other important role-players in the Afrikaans film industry. He has contributed to Afrikaans films in collaboration with more than a 1000 persons throughout his career of nearly six decades. The directors, producers, sound operators, actors and crew with whom he has collaborated the most are highlighted, and the films on which they worked together are mentioned. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The statement of the narrator in Johann Nell's farm novel Sondag op 'n voëlplaas (2013) about his self-quest amongst 'wild, fierce and erect ostrich necks' (pp. 244-245), alludes to his doubts about his sexual identity. The apparent latent homosexual is strengthened by the epigraph, a direct translation of an excerpt from Calaf's aria 'Nessun Dorma' from Puccini's opera Turandot. In the traditional Afrikaans farm novel, the narrator is usually a third-person (auctorial) narrator. The use of a first-person narrator in Nell's novel emphasises his deviation from the (stereo)typical traits and attributes of the traditional farm novel. The subjectivity inherent to the first-person narration (the I-as-protagonist) implies that what is represented in this novel is the main character's version of reality and his response to, especially, the farm as bastion of masculinity and traditional socio-political beliefs. Based on the above, this article takes as its point of departure the hypothetical assumption that the epigraph has an important part to play in the interpretation of the secret in that the implied or abstract author, by means of a parodying perspective, highlights a specific vision regarding the thematic significance. The epigraph not only reinforces the idea of a lack of identity and the idea that the 'true' identity could perhaps be a homosexual disposition, but also that it is simultaneously an etiological journey to the original opera libretto. In its turn, the libretto can be traced back to the Greek myth of Oedipus and the sphinx. By both discussing the intertexts and analysing the narrator's language usage, his disposition and his tale of the (traumatised) self, his sexual identity is scrutinised. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100005&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Within the South African context, Afrikaans films unabashedly and predominantly served Afrikaner nationalism. Given the South African historical and political background, it is evident that Afrikaner nationalism has almost become an obscene term because of its association with the National(ist) Party and its apartheid policy: emblematic of an ideology and policy that has been rejected worldwide and has even been compared - albeit a skewed comparison - to National Socialism. In this article, the different stages that emancipation of a formerly colonised literature goes through, according to Amuta (1989), Ashcroft (1989) and Brink, will be discussed in detail with reference to the Afrikaans films, Geboortegrond (1946) and Hans die skipper (1952). In this process of representation, the historical past is re-assessed and laid to rest with far-reaching philosophical, ideological and poetical implications. In order to discuss the representation of this contextually bound discourse, mention will be made regarding important relevant theoretical concepts such as semiotics, discursive formations, literary reception and processing, reportorium, horizon of expectation and habitus. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100006&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Within the South African context, Afrikaans films unabashedly and predominantly served Afrikaner nationalism. Given the South African historical and political background, it is evident that Afrikaner nationalism has almost become an obscene term because of its association with the National(ist) Party and its apartheid policy: emblematic of an ideology and policy that has been rejected worldwide and has even been compared - albeit a skewed comparison - to National Socialism. In this article, the different stages that emancipation of a formerly colonised literature goes through, according to Amuta (1989), Ashcroft (1989) and Brink, will be discussed in detail with reference to the Afrikaans films, Geboortegrond (1946) and Hans die skipper (1952). In this process of representation, the historical past is re-assessed and laid to rest with far-reaching philosophical, ideological and poetical implications. In order to discuss the representation of this contextually bound discourse, mention will be made regarding important relevant theoretical concepts such as semiotics, discursive formations, literary reception and processing, reportorium, horizon of expectation and habitus. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100007&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The meaning of words comes into play when words as units of translation are to be translated from one language into another. Lexical items that are extant in one language but not in others pose enormous problems for translators. The translation of ideophones - which feature very prominently in African discourse - is a case in point in this article. Translators faced with the translation of such forms are required to come up with strategies to aptly express their meanings in the target text. This article seeks to establish how CSZ Ntuli, in his English translation of an isiZulu short story Uthingo Lwenkosazana by DBZ Ntuli, has translated some of the ideophones used by the original author. Translation strategies used by CSZ Ntuli in his translation to express the meanings of the isiZulu ideophones will be brought to light in this article. It will be confirmed that CSZ Ntuli, using different lexical forms in the target language, has effectively changed unfamiliar isiZulu cultural notions to concepts that the English target reader can relate to. It will also be shown that the meanings of the isiZulu ideophones can be expressed in the target language using approximation and amplification as translation strategies provided that the translator has a good command of both source and target languages. The discussion will also look at how various translation scholars view the notion of equivalence at word level, and research on ideophones in isiZulu will also be reviewed. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100008&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article investigates the way in which the human-dog relationship is presented in the novel Op 'n dag, 'n hond by John Miles. The premise of this article is that the novel can be read within the theoretical framework of Posthumanism, in which the embodied communalities of humans and animals (dogs) are emphasised. Despite the differences between the human and nonhuman animal, it is possible to constitute relationality, based on their shared physical mortality. The investigation will focus on the visual paradigm of the novel: the reciprocal view between dog and human, human and dog, which contradicts anthropocentricism and establishes an intersubjective relationship. The dog as guide embodies a moral agent that causes the teacher to look downward, into the underworld, as well as backward to the past. This, in turn, foregrounds the issues of loyalty and betrayal, and the balance between good and evil in a human life. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100009&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en In African epics, female figures perform salient heroic roles that are, unfortunately, not widely recognised and celebrated, as notions of bravery and heroism are understood from a male perspective. Against this backdrop, this study adopts new critical and conceptual approaches to interrogate existing narratives, discourse and ideas on/or about female heroism. By focusing on selected epics, this work incorporates perceptions about women in folktales whose themes comment and reflect on the presentation of female characters and the roles they execute in society. The present contribution critically examines the role of supernatural forces in female characters' commitment and heroism; not only protecting Soundiata, Shaka, and Lianja in accomplishing their destinies but also showcasing the activities, traditions, belief systems and culture of the Mandingo, Zulu, and Mongo in their respective societies. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100010&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Transamerica, by Duncan Tucker, released in 2005, addresses lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer- (LGBTQ-) related themes through a transsexual female protagonist, Bree. This article discusses the film as an important step in the direction of representing the complexity of gender, which, by today's standards, is more generally appreciated. Because of its subject matter, Transamerica is a contentious film, lauded and condemned in mainstream media for how it dealt with and represented transsexual identities. Despite nominations for a number of awards, the film's portrayal of transsexual identities was largely ignored in academic discourse at the time. I argue here that the film provides insight into the challenges, requirements, concerns, as well as the consequences of gender-fluid expression, which has been recognised in academia for years and has become a more discussed topic in mainstream society, but the manner in which the film examines these insights was overlooked. I do this by contextualising the film in terms of contemporary examples of transgender existence, which have brought the topic to mainstream discourse, and by applying gender theory concepts to the film. I discuss the protagonist's physical and emotional journey to self-discovery in the context of the road movie trope. I then look into the protagonist's gender performance, as well as how the protagonist negotiates this performance in the various places she visits while on the journey. I show that the film encourages open and honest discourse about gender identity and expression; the opportunity for this discussion was not taken in the year of the film's release. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100011&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article discusses Mary Oliver's poem, 'Franz Marc's Blue Horses', as an ekphrastic poem. More specifically, the discussion opens with a brief overview aimed at an understanding of ekphrasis to show how its development through the centuries has altered definitions of what constitutes ekphrasis and how these fresh understandings have broadened its possibilities for the modern poet. Siglind Bruhn's ideas about the three stages of the ekphrastic process are then outlined. They trace the steps a poet has to follow in order to produce an ekphrastic poem; they follow consecutively, with the second depending on the first, and the third depending on the second. Understanding this process enables readers to appreciate the ways in which Oliver adheres to, or diverts from, it in producing her poem about Franz Marc. The discussion turns to Hans Lund's typology of the various verbal and visual relationships in ekphrasis that are open to the poet. His typology helps readers to consider answers to the following questions: what elements of the artwork does the poet make use of, and which does she exclude? In what ways are these elements deployed in the creation of her verbal text? And in broader terms, what is the nature of visual and verbal relationship in this particular poem? How tentative might that relationship be? After a description of Franz Marc's painting, The Tower of Blue Horses, as an Expressionist artwork, the discussion moves on to Mary Oliver 's poem. The text is conceptualised as Oliver 's 'script' as it takes up Stephen Cheeke's suggestion 'to imagine what happens next' after the poet's initial interface with the stasis of the artwork's pregnant moment. The article modifies the frequently used metaphor of the painting as a single frame from a film, replacing the solitary frame with the idea of a single scene as more credible metaphorically, the scene itself being divided into several segments reflecting the poem's structure. Thus, the punctum temporis (or pregnant moment) as a single scene from a film becomes the guiding metaphor of the article. Then, the article argues that Oliver develops her poem as a filmic narrative, offering readers a series of 'segments' depicting various aspects of the evolving narrative as she visualises it. These ekphrastic processes are explored in some detail. Reading the poem in a filmic way allows the poet to controvert the implicit stasis of the painting and, through the transmedialisation of the visual to the verbal, to create a dynamic narrative 'script', using the poem's segmented structure, to explore the text's meaning by offering readers a vivid evocation of her experience of Marc's painting. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100012&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Yann Martel's Life of Pi recontextualises the traditional castaway narrative's rationalist and reductivist worldview by incorporating carnivalised writing, or the carnivalesque, to examine alternative or 'non-human' ways of encountering the world. It is this subversive and liberating approach towards dominant cultural forms and beliefs that is manifested in Life of Pi through grotesque realism. Grotesque realism, as defined in Mikhail Bakhtin's Rabelais and his world, is relevant to Martel's novel, as this convention purports that animals embody the raw physicality of existence through their instinctual and amoral nature. In the context of the novel, carnivalesque writing contributes to the blurring of boundaries between human and animal in a way that also reveals the transformative abilities of storytelling. The dissolution of boundaries that separate humans from animals and the rational from the irrational emphasises the redeeming potential in alternative - or imaginative - ways of interpreting existence and, ultimately, casts light on uncanny spaces of existence such as loss, suffering and deprivation. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100013&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100014&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100015&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100016&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100017&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100018&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100019&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100020&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100021&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100022&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100023&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100024&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100025&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100026&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2219-82372018000100027&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses well-known anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's prison memoir 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013) for depictions of suffering. This memoir reveals aspects of politically inflicted trauma, particularly the suffering sustained in prolonged solitary confinement and the resulting psychological sequelae for the prisoner. To move beyond a vague understanding of her traumatic experiences, this article draws on the field of psychiatry, specifically the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to gain greater insight as this tool may also be regarded as a type of narrative that could aid in the comprehension of traumatic events. References will be made to the three main cluster symptoms of PTSD: involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders and an ongoing sense of threat. An interdisciplinary literary-psychological approach will probably lead to a deeper understanding of the mental consequences of political imprisonment, as PTSD was not an acknowledged disorder during Madikizela-Mandela's detainment.