The extension of the current pandemic lockdown has caused considerable community consternation. While disappointing and discouraging, my medical background, and continuing awareness of the global health chaos, supports the cautious approach to re-opening.
In the past, I have looked at how hermits, like St Jerome, coped with isolation. Being a hermit is usually a self-imposed decision, so today I thought I would consider how others have responded to involuntary incarceration.
In 524 CE, the Roman statesman, Boethius, was imprisoned while awaiting trial for treason (he was later executed). The experience inspired the text – ‘The Consolation of Philosophy’ – which has been described as ‘by far the most interesting example of prison literature the world has ever seen’. In his writing, Boethius reflects on the issue of theodicy (how evil can exist in a world governed by God) and how happiness can be attained while we are subject to the vagaries of life – a question many are struggling with today.
The book was an important and influential work on Western Medieval and Renaissance Christianity, and translations into the vernacular were undertaken by King Alfred, Geoffrey Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth I. The themes within the ‘Consolations’ which have echoed through the Western canon, include: the female figure of wisdom that informs Dante, the ascent through the layered universe which is taken up by Milton, the reconciliation of opposing forces in Chaucer’s tales and the idea of the ‘Wheel of Fortune’.
Honoré DAUMIER (R), NGV Collection
Centuries later, the inspiration for Don Quixote (1605) came from Miquel de Cervantes’ time in captivity as a galley slave between 1575 and 1580. The plot of this early novel revolves around the chivalric adventures of the noble from La Mancha and his quest to right wrongs. While the end of the pandemic may seem like an ‘impossible dream’ (the anthemic song from the musical theatre adaptation), it is possible to imagine and document all manner of exciting adventures in our current virtual existence.
Hubert-François GRAVELOT (engraver), NGV Collection
Alternatively, if fantasy is not of interest, then perhaps it is worth considering history. Sir Walter Raleigh compiled his ‘History of the World, Volume 1’ (1618) in a prison chamber in the Tower of London before he was executed. Unfortunately, his death prevented him from completing further volumes.
Sixty years later, John Bunyan, the English Puritan preacher, wrote the Christian allegory – The Pilgrim’s Progress – during his twelve-year imprisonment in the Bedfordshire county prison for violations of the Conventicle Act (the prohibition of holding religious services outside the auspices of the established Church of England).
It is hoped that you are not finding yourself in the ‘Slough of Despond’ (the deep fictional bog of despondency described by Bunyan), but misery often leads to creativity. Writers like Fyodor Dostoevsky used the experience of hard labour in a Siberian prison camp to pen the autobiographical novel, ‘The House of the Dead’ (1860-62). Similarly, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn published his novel ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’ in 1962 which was set in a Soviet labour camp. And Oscar Wilde wrote the philosophical essay/letter ‘De Profundis’ (1897) while in Reading Gaol.
Other notable examples of ‘prison literature’ include Jean Genet’s ‘Our Lady of the Flowers’ – scrawled on scraps of paper while Genet was in prison near Paris; and the prodigious output of the Marquis de Sade during his 11-year period in the Bastille during which he produced 11 novels, 16 novellas, two volumes of essays, a diary and 20 plays. Hopefully the pandemic will be a much shorter inconvenience.
There are many, many more examples of this literary genre and one of the most recent and locally important is ‘No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison’ by the Kurdish-Iranian journalist, Behrouz Boochani, whose story will be featured tonight on ‘Australian Story’ on the ABC (and subsequently on ABC iView).
Finally, if writing is ‘not your thing’, just remember Marco Polo. While being held captive in Genoa from 1298-1299 Marco Polo dictated a detailed account of his travels to China to a fellow inmate – all you need to find is a willing accomplice and scribe like his ‘co-author’ Rustichello da Pisa.
As Nita Jawary demonstrated in her recent post, ‘Ekphrasis’, artworks stimulate ideas. So, give it your best shot and have a go. If you send me your endeavours, I promise I will publish them here…