In Portrait with Keys (2006), Ivan Vladislavić explores the social dynamic of post-apartheid South Africa through architecture, and particularly through walls. Walls are normally seen as dividing structures, yet scholars in the field of border poetics show that boundaries do not only divide, but are also contact zones. Border poetics, therefore, provides a framework for investigating the separation and connection that the walls in Portrait with Keys bring about. In this article, I read social interaction, identity formation, time and change through the walls and along the “Walls” and “Painted Walls” routes in this book. I show that the walls, quintessential symbols of division, are employed in the text to facilitate and modulate contact; that they contribute to identity formation, often in unpredictable ways; and that they modulate characters’ experience of time, while recording change in the city.

中文翻译：

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分离的幻觉：伊万·弗拉迪斯拉维奇《带钥匙的肖像》中的墙壁

在《带钥匙的肖像》（2006 年）中，伊万·弗拉迪斯拉维奇通过建筑，尤其是墙壁，探索了种族隔离后南非的社会动态。墙壁通常被视为分隔结构，但边界诗学领域的学者表明，边界不仅是分隔，而且还是接触带。因此，边界诗学提供了一个框架，用于研究《带钥匙的肖像》中的墙壁所带来的分离和联系。在这篇文章中，我穿过墙壁，沿着本书中的“墙壁”和“彩绘墙壁”路线阅读了社交互动、身份形成、时间和变化。我展示了墙壁，分裂的典型象征，在文本中被用来促进和调节接触；它们有助于身份的形成，通常以不可预测的方式；