With poems that convey concisely the existential state of living in precarity, Mxolisi Nyezwa offers a unique and crucial voice in South African literature. This article discusses representations of precarity and related concepts of “slow death” (Berlant 2007), “slow violence” (Nixon 2011), and “cruel optimism” (Berlant 2011), focusing on several selected poems from Nyezwa’s (2011) volume Malikhanye. The article engages with his ability to react to precarity via the revitalisation of language and the effective mobilisation of innovative aesthetic strategies. Nyezwa’s poems foreground the precarity that has been experienced through socio-politico-economic factors, including the often neglected factor of environmental degradation; they also emphasise the process(es) of grieving and the concept of grievability, and encourage an embrace of human vulnerability, while simultaneously connecting personal loss to the greater context of societal precarity. His work reveals that a revitalisation of poetic language can react to and challenge precarity.

中文翻译：

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“我所见的我的国家”：Mxolisi Nyezwa 诗选中对不稳定的表现

Mxolisi Nyezwa 的诗歌简洁地传达了生活在不稳定中的生存状态，在南非文学中提供了独特而重要的声音。本文讨论了“缓慢死亡”（Berlant 2007）、“缓慢暴力”（Nixon 2011）和“残酷的乐观主义”（Berlant 2011）的不稳定和相关概念的表现，重点介绍了 Nyezwa（2011）卷 Malikhanye 中的几首诗. 这篇文章介绍了他通过语言的振兴和创新美学策略的有效动员来应对不稳定的能力。涅兹瓦的诗歌突出了社会政治经济因素所经历的不稳定，包括经常被忽视的环境退化因素；他们还强调悲伤的过程和可悲伤的概念，并鼓励拥抱人类的脆弱性，同时将个人损失与社会不稳定的更大背景联系起来。他的作品表明，诗歌语言的复兴可以应对和挑战不稳定。