Images of heterotopia in Etheredge knight's poetry

Abstract EN

Imprisonment, literally or metaphorically, is everywhere in reality, in language, in literature, and in our minds.

The state of imprisonment has its own discourses and representations.

Prison writing is a literary body necessary to fully discussion and a serious research in its tropes, poetics and metaphors.

Many powerful literary writings have come to light from darkened confinements such as asylums, hospitals, trenches, jails, reservation camps etc.

Prison is not an exception; it is an agonizing experience and asphyxiating space that affects and shapes the prisoner-writer's career.

Foucauldian notion “heterotopia, ” the other spaces that mirror and yet upset the outer world, epitomizes the imprisonment tropes and goes beyond the space of prison to include real and psychological dimensions.

The paper sheds light on the heterotopic images in the poetry of Etheridge Knight, his epitome The Essential Etheridge Knight, where the poet mainly hones and inspires his poet-identity in prison.