Wcs;Noises In The Blood
Carolyn Cooper(Author)
Macmillan Caribbean (Publisher)
Published on 27. July 1993
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-333-57824-7 (ISBN)
Description
This volume examines the problem of the relationship between the written work and orality in Jamaican society and culture. Jamaica's oral tradition is exemplified in the contemporary explosion of performance poetry and the popularity of reggae music. In the development of a national consciousness and the accompanying search for identity, it is not only the bonds of economic dependence which need to be broken, but the iron hoops of cultural dependence. This has proved a difficult task, as the colonial educational legacy stressed the importance of the written word and literary text. This book illustrates the paradox that although technology can enslave by exposing dependent cultures to foreign models, it can also liberate by enabling the sounds of the spoken word to ripple through the airwaves. This can be an exhilerating experience for those to whom the written word is a closed book. This study is subversive - it inverts the accepted categories of high-culture and, in doing so, reformulates the terms of nationalist discourse, making a forceful contribution towards the revindication of a submerged and for long a neglected, if not despised, popular culture.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Macmillan Education
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
286 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-333-57824-7 (9780333578247)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
Oral/sexual discourse in Jamaican popular culture; "Me Know No Law, Me Know No Sin" - transgressive identities and the voice of innocence - the historical context; "Culture and tradition a birthright?" - proverb as metaphor in the poetry of Louise Bennett; that cunny jamma oman - representations of female sensibility in the poetry of Louise Bennett; words unbroken by the beat - the performance poetry of Jean Binta Breeze of Louis Bennett; writing oral history - Sistren Theatre Collective's "Lionheart Gal"; country come to town - Michael Thelwell's "The Harder They Come"; chanting down Babylon - Bob Marley's song as literary text; slackness hiding from culture - erotic play in the dancehall; from "centre" to "margin" - turning history upside down; appendices - proverbs from Louise Bennett, Jamaican proverbs - a gender perspective.