Palimpsests
poems based on the classics that speak to the present
Published on 28. July 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
82 pages
978-1-990992-26-1 (ISBN)
Description
Like a modern Orpheus, Chris Mann explores the underworld of the past and returns with peculiarly African poetry, based on the classics that deepens our understanding of the present. In this collection, youthful Narcissus gazes into a mobile phone, wandering Odysseus sails the seas of the Internet, and picknickers beside a river's pool in South Africa encounter the shades. The satirical poets of ancient Rome mock a strangely familiar hunger for sex and power among politicians, dispossessed Britons revolt against the empire, Vandals ruthlessly plunder wealth and land, and tech-savvy Phoenicians colonise the coast of a pastoral Africa. Rising seas engulf the lost city of Atlantis, and a terrible plague devastates the Athens of Socrates, Pericles, and the Parthenon. Palimpsests speaks to the interplay of different cultures and how the past is interwoven in the fabric of the present. It is a fresh, new offering enabling lovers of the classics to experience this world in a unique, modern and African way.
More details
Language
English
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 5 mm
Weight
113 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-990992-26-1 (9781990992261)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Chris Mann was Emeritus Professor of Poetry at Rhodes University. Before his move to Rhodes, he worked in rural education and development for over a decade, primarily as a director of the Valley Trust outside Durban. He founded Wordfest South Africa at Rhodes University and his published work includes fifteen poetry collections and several verse plays. He is the recipient of an English Academy Gold Medal (2019), the Patricia Schonstein Poetry in McGregor Prize (2019), a Standard Bank National Arts Festival Ovation Award for his play, The Ballad of Dirk de Bruin (2014), the Thomas Pringle Award for Poetry (2007), the Olive Schreiner Award for South African Poetry (1983) and, while a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize (1973). Dryad Press mourns his passing in 2021.