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Abstract

Thanks to hyperesthesia, the “poet-detainee” manages to pierce the opacity of his cell, to tear the black band and to master an unhealthy environment that is completely foreign to him. In his poems written during the years of lead (1972- 1980), Abdellatif Laâbi immortalized eight years in prison. He is more than a political prisoner; he is a poet who cannot be intimidated, let alone deprived of imagination and writing. However, faced with the arbitrariness of the prison machination, he is reduced to a sequestered state. Thus, like any prisoner, he is affected by the hyperesthesia inherent in the condition of a prisoner, whatever his status is. In the cell, this “high-precision mechanics” according to Laâbi, prisoners deprived of light, healthy food and any contact with the outside world, see their senses develop to the point of exacerbation. Yet, Laâbi develops two types of hyperesthesia: the one that is related to the prison experience (arrest, isolation and solitude) and the one related to his nostalgic thoughts, of the memory of the senses which reaches its paroxysm behind bars.

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