The African-Jamaican aesthetic : cultural retention and transformation across borders / by Lisa Tomlinson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tomlinson, Lisa, author.

Series:

Cross/cultures ; 196.

Cross/cultures : readings in post/colonial literatures and cultures in English ; volume 196

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aesthetics, African.

Authors, African.

Authors, Jamaican--Aesthetics.

Authors, Jamaican.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (234 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Brill 2017

Leiden : Brill Rodopi, [2017]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The African-Jamaican Aesthetic explores the ways in which diasporic African-Jamaican writers employ cultural referents aesthetically in their literary works to challenge dominant European literary discourses; articulate concerns about racialization and belonging; and preserve and enact cultural continuities in their new environment(s). The creative works considered provide insight into how local and indigenous Caribbean knowledges are both changed by the transfer to new, diasporic locales and reflect a unified consciousness of African-Jamaican roots and culture. The works surveyed also reveal significant connections with a ‘past’ Africa. Indeed, Africa is treated as a central source of aesthetic influence in these writers’ expression of local cultures and indigenous knowledges. Aspects covered include language (Jamaican Patwa), religion, folklore, music, and dance to identify the continuities in an African-Jamaican aesthetic, which is understood here as an ongoing dialogue of cultural memory between the Caribbean, Africa, and diasporic spaces. Writers discussed include Claude McKay, Una Marson, Louise Bennett, Afua Cooper, Lillian Allen, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Benjamin Zephaniah, Lillian Allen, Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze, Makeda Silvera, and Joan Riley

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Introduction

Work Songs, Proverbs, and Storytelling in Jamaican Literary Tradition

The African-Jamaican Aesthetic, Pan-Africanism, and Decolonization in Early Jamaican Literature

Crossing Over to the Diaspora: The Reggae Aesthetic, Dub, and the Literary Diaspora

Gendering Dub Culture Across Diaspora: Jamaican Female Dub Poets in Canada and England

Home Away from Home: The African-Jamaican Aesthetic in Diasporic Novels

Conclusion

Works Cited

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

CC BY-NC-ND

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed February 8, 2017).

OCLC:

973876925

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004342330 DOI

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access