ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the extent to which spoken word poetry in post-apartheid South Africa comprises cumulatively assembled layers of musical and performing languages which, in order to be accurately analysed, require a flexible, critical approach. To date, spoken word poetry is in a process of fast and constant evolution that poses a challenge to literary critics who attempt to rationalise its features alongside conventional critical “norms”. It is the intermingling languages involved in the creation and dissemination of spoken word poetry that this chapter discusses, with attention to the interface between poetry and music. In an attempt to expand the analysis offered in seminal studies on this topic – most notably Buthelezi et al. (2014) and Fiore (2015) – the chapter first explores the genesis of spoken word poetry, with specific reference to the South African context; it then constructs a typology of South African spoken word poetry, as well as schematising the channels of production and re-production of this art. Finally, it assesses the state of consumption of the spoken word in urban South Africa, with the aim of shedding light on how the genre belongs to a space that lies within and beyond literature and literary criticism.
