Notes from the Middle World

by Breyten Breytenbach

Praise for Breyten Breytenbach's Return to Paradise : "This wonderful book . . . is written with a wild heart and an unrelenting eye, and is fueled by the sort of rage that produces great literature."— The Washington Post What is the place of the artist and writer in a globalized world? In dialogue with the voices of the dead and the living—Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama— internationally distinguished South African artist, activist, and writer Breyten Breytenbach's new collection of essays traces the collisions between utopia and disaster, political trauma, and the renewal of hope. Notes from the Middle World is a beautiful and heartwrenching book. These essays include a glimpse of a buried language created in the Hunan province by and for women, an open letter to Nelson Mandela reflecting on the perilous state of post-apartheid South Africa, and existential and linguistic explorations. Against the conformity of power, Breytenbach takes readers on a journey through the "Middle World," an imagined space beyond borders and exile, toward an embracing vision of justice for the "un-citizens" post-modernity has dispossessed. A native of South Africa, Breyten Breytenbach is a distinguished painter, activist, and prolific writer. His most recent writing has been published in Harper's Magazine . From 1975–1982, he was a political prisoner serving solitary confinement in South African prisons. Today, Breytenbach is a Global Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at New York University.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, South Africa

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Breyten Breytenbach was a South African writer, poet, and painter. He became internationally well-known as a dissident poet and vocal critic of South Africa under apartheid, and as a political prisoner of the National Party-led South African Government. He is also known as a founding member of the Sestigers, a dissident literary movement, and was one of the most important living poets in Afrikaans literature.

Reviews

[Dana]

I have no idea what to think of this book. I liked parts of it, but other stuff went over my head/wasn’t able to capture my attention. I can tell that the author put a lot of thought into what he wrote and because of that I feel as though I’m missing out by not ‘getting it.’ But at the same time, all books aren’t for everyone + he said some stuff that was kinda weird in his second to last essay that I’m not sure if I interpreted right- but if I did, it was 'problematic' at best. Like, I read it a bit quick since I wanted to be done with the book but I felt like he was saying he didn’t identify with whiteness because he’s African? Which… there’s a lot wrong with that for a lot of reasons. I felt like it would have been more accurate for him to say that he didn’t identify with the concept of Western whiteness. Not nearly as questionable haha.