ABSTRACT
Queer writing in a creative response to defy the laws of language, gender and politics. The queer writer writing against political and patriarchal repression against le grain de la voix constructs an identity of defiance and angst. The poetry of Johann de Lange reflects a poetic revolt during the Apartheid years in South Africa. The poem becomes a state of emergency or an algebra of emergency. The interpretation of a poem defies a final interpretation and unsettles political discourse and repression. Simultaneously the poem feeds on the political unconscious and the taboos of a heteronormative society. The "double talk" of being gay in a patriarchal society such as the South African one with a Bill of Rights, yet marred with political strife, liberated gay people, but the oppressive Apartheid regime was also an inspiration for gay writers. Apartheid was a mindset, and political repression intimidated people on a race and gender level.
