Will it be so in our own times of pandemic, suffering and grief? Two major experiences from the past anticipate what may inspire those who attempt literary responses to this current emergency. Today's writers also find the world suddenly unrecognisable, exiles themselves from the tidy rituals of previous existence. How to imitate the example of dislocated writers who used new horizons to create new works of art, if we are condemned to inhabit a small, circumscribed space? UTTER DESOLATIONSome of the most moving testimonies to the human condition have been produced by writers in jail.

Source: Daily Nation July 04, 2020 06:56 UTC