When the Pipirite Sings gathers poems by the noted Haitian poet, novelist, and neurologist Jean Metellus, who died in January 2014. Along with other signature works, this volume includes the first English translation of Metellus's visionary epic poem, "Au pipirite chantant" ("When the Pipirite Sings"), widely regarded as his masterpiece.
Translated by formidable comparative literature scholar Haun Saussy, When the Pipirite Sings expresses an acute historical consciousness and engages recurrent Haitian themes-the wrenching impact of colonialism and underdevelopment, the purposes of education, and the merging of spiritual and temporal power. And, as always with Metellus's poetry, the range of voices and points of view evokes other genres, including fiction and cinema. This eminently readable book has formal and thematic ties to Aime Cesaire's Notebook of a Return to My Native Land, central to the canon of French-language postcolonial writings.
In addition to many books of poetry, Metellus published novels, chiefly about the remembered Haiti of his youth, and plays about the conquest of the Caribbean. His nonfiction included reflections on Haitian history and politics, on the iconography of slave emancipation, and studies of aphasia and dyslexia.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Maße
Höhe: 224 mm
Breite: 147 mm
Dicke: 13 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-8101-3978-7 (9780810139787)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Jean Metellus (1937-2014) is the author of several novels, books of poetry, and plays, all written in French and largely untranslated. After an education in his native Haiti, he worked as a teacher. In 1959, to escape the Duvalier dictatorship, Metellus moved to Paris, where he studied linguistics and medicine, specializing in neurology. The magazine Les Lettres Nouvelles published his poem Au pipirite chantant in 1973, beginning his career as a poet and writer. Some of Metellus's early poems were also published by Jean-Paul Sartre in Les Temps Modernes. He was the recipient of many literary prizes.
Haun Saussy is a professor at the University of Chicago, where he teaches in the departments of comparative literature, East Asian languages and literatures, and social thought. A former president of the American Comparative Literature Association, he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has published numerous works on literary theory, intercultural comparison, translation, and poetics.
