Classics in post-colonial worlds / edited by Lorna Hardwick and Carol Gillespie.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Hardwick, Lorna.

Gillespie, Carol.

Series:

Classical presences

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Commonwealth literature (English)--Classical influences.

Commonwealth literature (English).

Commonwealth literature (English)--Greek influences.

African drama (English)--Greek influences.

African drama (English).

Caribbean literature (English)--Classical influences.

Caribbean literature (English).

Caribbean literature (English)--Greek influences.

Postcolonialism--Commonwealth countries.

Postcolonialism.

Commonwealth countries.

Classicism in literature.

Comparative literature--Modern and classical.

Comparative literature.

Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.).

Genre:

Conference papers and proceedings.

Physical Description:

xv, 422 pages ; 23 cm.

Other Title:

Classics in postcolonial worlds

Place of Publication:

Oxford [England] ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Classics in Post-Colonial Worlds examines the continuing impact of Greek and Roman drama, literature, and art on the cultures of societies that have emerged from colonial domination. It is well known that classical literature, ideas, and architecture was used to express colonial authority and in some cases dominated the education of the elite among both colonized and colonizers. But classical themes and motifs were also appropriated to challenge colonialism and after independence have continued to be an important and sometimes problematic aspect of the development of cultural identities and politics in post-colonial societies.

The essays in this book represent the latest research in the interaction between classical texts and post-colonial contexts. They demonstrate how this engagement is a crucial aspect of creative practice in the work of poets and dramatists such as Derek Walcott, Seamus Heaney, Athol Fuguard, Femi Osofisan, and Christopher Okigbo, and has illuminated cultural politics in many parts of Africa, Europe, India, and the Caribbean. They also reveal how changes in perception of the ancient world, its written and material texts and its ideologies, are created by transplanting these into other languages and cultural contexts. The diverse ways in which classical texts have migrated and been transmitted worldwide and the variations in how they have been received and re-used also open up new questions about the nature and trajectories of cultural activity in post-colonial contexts and thus contribute to wider debates about cultural change.

Contents:

1 Trojan Women in Yorubaland: Femi Osofisan's Women of Owu / Felix Budelmann 15

2 Antigone's Boat: the Colonial and the Postcolonial in Tegonni: An African Antigone by Femi Osofisan / Barbara Goff 40

3 Antigone and her African Sisters: West African Versions of a Greek Original / James Gibbs 54

4 Cross-Cultural Bonds Between Ancient Greece and Africa: Implications for Contemporary Staging Practices / John Djisenu 72

5 The Curse of the Canon: Ola Rotimi's The Gods Are Not To Blame / Michael Simpson 86

6 Post-Apartheid Electra: In the City of Paradise / Elke Steinmeyer 102

7 Sculpture at Heroes' Acre, Harare, Zimbabwe: Classical Influences? / Jessie Maritz 119

Part II Encounter and New Traditions

8 Perspectives on Post-Colonialism in South Africa: the Voortrekker Monument's Classical Heritage / Richard Evans 141

9 Imperial Reflections: The Post-Colonial Verse-Novel as Post-Epic / Katharine Burkitt 157

10 A Divided Child, or Derek Walcott's Post-Colonial Philology / Cashman Kerr Prince 170

11 Arriving Backwards: the Return of The Odyssey in the English-Speaking Caribbean / Emily Greenwoord 192

12 'If You are a Woman': Theatrical Womanizing in Sophocles' Antigone and Fugard, Kani, and Ntshona's The Island / Rush Rehm 211

13 Finding a Post-Colonial Voice for Antigone: Seamus Heaney's Burial at Thebes / Stephen E. Wilmer 228

Part III Challenging Theory: Framing Futher Questions

14 'The Same Kind of Smile?' About the 'Use and Abuse' of Theory in Constructing the Classical Tradition / Freddy Decreus 245

15 From the Peloponnesian War to the Iraq War: a Post-Liberal Reading of Greek Tragedy / Michiel Leezenberg 265

16 Western Classics, Indian Classics: Postcolonial Contestations / Harish Trivedi 286

17 Shades of Multi-Lingualism and Multi-Vocalism in Modern Performances of Greek Tragedy in Post-Colonial Contexts / Lorna Hardwick 305

18 The Empire Never Ended / Ika Willis 329

19 Another Architecture / David Richards 349.

Notes:

Papers from a conference, Classics in Post-Colonial Worlds, held at the Open University in Harborne, Birmingham, in May 2004.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [364]-409) and index.

ISBN:

9780199296101

0199296103

OCLC:

145937397