Contemporary West Indian poetry: a "Creole" aesthetics?

dc.contributor.advisor	Pajalich, Armando	it_IT
dc.contributor.author	Florian, Sara <1981>	it_IT
dc.date.accessioned	2010-05-03T09:43:41Z	it_IT
dc.date.accessioned	2012-07-30T15:51:07Z
dc.date.available	2010-05-03T09:43:41Z	it_IT
dc.date.available	2012-07-30T15:51:07Z
dc.date.issued	2010-04-15	it_IT
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10579/975	it_IT
dc.description.abstract	La mia tesi verte su un’indagine dei più ricorrenti principi di un’estetica “creola” nella poesia contemporanea dei Caraibi anglofoni, includendo un’analisi dei testi letterari scelti e dei loro contesti. Ho studiato l’opera poetica (che in alcuni casi abbraccia anche arte e musica) di Earl McKenzie e Joan Andrea Hutchinson (Giamaica), di Lasana Sekou (St. Martin), di Shake Keane (St. Vincent), di Kendel Hippolyte (St. Lucia), di Adisa Jelani Andwele (a.k.a. AJA) e del defunto Bruce St. John (Barbados), di Merle Collins (Grenada), di David Rudder e LeRoy Clarke (Trinidad), e di altri due poeti defunti, Eric Roach (Tobago) e Martin Carter (Guyana). I dodici poeti studiati sono stati scelti sulla base di uguaglianza, provenienza geografica e quindi rispettiva variante regionale del Creolo. La mia ricerca cerca di aggiustare la struttura teorica di un’estetica “creola” ad uno scenario letterario caraibico per verificare se sia possibile delineare un’estetica comune nei Caraibi anglofoni.	it_IT
dc.description.abstract	My thesis deals with an investigation into the most recurrent “Creole” aesthetic principles in contemporary West Indian poetry, including an analysis of the literary texts chosen and their contexts. I have studied the poetic oeuvre – which, in some cases, also incorporates paintings and music – of Earl McKenzie and Joan Andrea Hutchinson (Jamaica), Lasana Sekou (St. Martin), Shake Keane (St. Vincent), Kendel Hippolyte (St. Lucia), Adisa Jelani Andwele (a.k.a. AJA) and the late Bruce St. John (Barbados), Merle Collins (Grenada), David Rudder and LeRoy Clarke (Trinidad), and two other deceased poets, Eric Roach (Tobago) and Martin Carter (Guyana). The twelve poets analysed were chosen on the basis of equality, geographical provenance and thus respective regional variety of the Creole. My research tries to apply a “Creole” aesthetic theoretical framework to selected Caribbean literary works and verify whether it is possible to outline a common West Indian aesthetics out of that process.	it_IT
dc.format.medium	Tesi cartacea	it_IT
dc.language.iso	en	it_IT
dc.publisher	Università Ca' Foscari Venezia	it_IT
dc.rights	© Sara Florian, 2010	it_IT
dc.subject	West-Indian poetry	it_IT
dc.subject	Creole	it_IT
dc.subject	Aesthetics	it_IT
dc.title	Contemporary West Indian poetry: a "Creole" aesthetics?	it_IT
dc.type	Doctoral Thesis	it_IT
dc.degree.name	Lingue, culture e società	it_IT
dc.degree.level	Dottorato di ricerca	it_IT
dc.degree.grantor	Facoltà di Lingue e letterature straniere	it_IT
dc.description.academicyear	2008/2009	it_IT
dc.description.cycle	22	it_IT
dc.degree.coordinator	Mamoli Zorzi, Rosella	it_IT
dc.location.shelfmark	D000905	it_IT
dc.location	Venezia, Archivio Università Ca' Foscari, Tesi Dottorato	it_IT
dc.rights.accessrights	openAccess	it_IT
dc.thesis.matricno	955332	it_IT
dc.format.pagenumber	606 p.	it_IT
dc.subject.miur	L-LIN/10 LETTERATURA INGLESE	it_IT
dc.description.note	Indirizzo del corso di dottorato: Filologia Moderna	it_IT
dc.description.tableofcontent	Table of contents Preface 9 Introduction: A West Indian “Creole” Aesthetics? 13 1950s: West Indian poetry: “poor imitations of English models”? 29 1960s: “West Indianization of the English Literature and Language” 31 1970s: “West Indianismus”? 33 1980s: The “federating” role of West Indian poets 45 1990s: Creole as a vector of aesthetic unity 54 2000s: “The entire world is gone ‘creole’” 59 Summarizing chart of the main aesthetic points 68 Chapter I – Eric Roach (1915-1974) – An ‘Island Aesthetics’ as an ‘Aesthetics of the Islands’ 76 I.i. Roach’s nostalgia for origins: the influence of W.B. Yeats 77 I.ii. The importance of nature in Roach’s poetry 80 I.iii. The search for an aesthetic unity: the use of Creole and Roach’s relevance in the ‘Savacou debate’ 84 I.iv. Poetry as a preparation for death 89 Chapter II – Bruce St. John (1923-1995) – The “Cultivated” Voice of the Common Folk 94 II.i. ‘Eddication’ vs. common sense: politics and aesthetics 95 II.ii. ‘Bajanism’: “cricket and kite-flying and sex” 99 II.iii. St. John’s socio-cultural aesthetics: from the Bajan folk and its language to a Caribbean creolization 103 Chapter III – Shake Keane (1927-1997) – The irreverent flourish of a Creole “Angel Horn” 110 III.i. An irreverent look at history as a poetic form of survival 112 III.i.i. History and religion of St. Vincent 112 III.i.ii. Irony, satire, and nonsense 118 III.ii. A daring look on language 122 III.ii.i. Keane’s employment of Vincentian Creole 129 III.ii.ii. The influence of jazz on Keane’s language 131 III.iii. A West Indian Aesthetics: the blending of people’s languages and musical/literary genres 134 Chapter IV – Martin Carter (1927-1997) – The Aesthetics of Social and Political Freedom in Post-Colonial Guyana 139 IV.i. Freedom in post-colonial Guyana 140 IV.ii. ‘Thought’: “This Colony Is a Jail” 142 IV.iii. ‘Inspiration’: prison as Hell? 146 IV.iv. ‘Art’: a metaphysical prison 147 IV.v. Speech: philosophical couplets or iambs? 149 Chapter V – Le Roy Clarke (1938 - ) – The Poetic Call of the Orishas 152 V.i. Rhythms on the page, rhythms on the canvas 154 V.ii. Haunting presences: the call of the Orishas 157 V.iii. The universals of the Caribbean sociological aesthetics of love according to Clarke 167 V.iii.i. Sociological aesthetics of suffering 167 V.iii.ii. Aesthetics of love: women 169 V.iii.iii. Language 171 Chapter VI – Earl McKenzie (1943 - ) – Creole in McKenzie’s Poetry: Blending Three Arts into One 174 VI.i. The poetics of the five Ps: Philosophy, Painting, Poetry, Prose-Fiction, and Pedagogy 175 VI.ii. Nature and spiritual reconciliation with the universe 176 VI.iii. Aesthetics and language 182 Chapter VII – Merle Collins (1950 - ) – A People’s Revolutionary Aesthetics 192 VII.i. Revolution in Grenada: Because the Dawn Breaks! 193 VII.ii. Rotten Pomerack 199 VII.iii. The nutmeg as the queen of Grenadian crops: Lady in a Boat 205 VII.iv. Collins’s ‘Poetics of the Nutmeg’ and its aesthetic meaning 208 Chapter VIII – Kendel Hippolyte (1952 - ) – Sound and Undersound: the Aesthetics of Cultural Resistance 212 VIII.i. Walcott’s and Brathwaite’s influence in Hippolyte’s poetry 212 VIII.ii. Creole Musicality: a Caribbean “submarine unity” 213 VIII.iii. Walcott’s influence in Hippolyte’s poetic palimpsest 215 VIII.iv. Brathwaite’s influence: neologisms and poetic inventiveness 218 VIII.v. Caribbean oral culture onto the page 222 Chapter IX – David Rudder (1953 - ) – The New “King of Calypso” 229 IX.i. Rudder’s calypsoes on a local level: Trinidad 231 IX.ii. Rudder’s calypsoes on a regional level: the West Indies 250 IX.iii. Rudder’s calypsoes and world’s politics 254 IX.iv. Conclusion: looking for a Caribbean musical aesthetics 260 Chapter X – AJA (1957 - ) – Music and Poetry Live As One 262 X.i. A fusion of music and poetry 263 X.ii Towards a Caribbean aesthetic unity 269 Chapter XI – Lasana Mwanza Sekou (1959 - ) – The Aesthetics of Salt and Sugar 273 XI.i. The pervasive oxymoron of ‘salt’ and ‘sweet’ in Sekou 275 XI.ii. Use of language and graphic layout 280 XI.iii. An aesthetics of music 287 XI.iv. Sekou’s political fight: his aesthetic theory of the village chiefs and the maroons 291 Chapter XII – Joan Andrea Hutchinson (1963 – ) – An Aesthetics of Performance 304 XII.i. Meck Mi Tell Yuh (2004) 305 XII.ii. Inna Mi Heart (2006) 309 XII.iii. An aesthetics of performance 310 Conclusion 313 Towards the definition of a West Indian “Creole” Aesthetics 313 Philosophical paraphernalia to a Caribbean aesthetics 316 The socio-aesthetics gains texture in a West Indian fine-grained poetic panoply 318 Aesthetic flourishes and solos in a West Indian poetic ensemble 323 A West Indian “Creole” Aesthetics? 332 Appendix A – Interviews with poets and scholars 339 Interview with Prof. Velma Pollard, 16th Nov 2007, Kingston, Jamaica 339 Interview with Dr. Jeannette Allsopp, Nov. 29th 2007, St. Michael, Barbados 342 Interview with Prof. Hubert Devonish, 29th Nov. 2007, Kingston, Jamaica 354 Interview with Earl McKenzie, 3rd Dec 2007, Kingston, Jamaica 358 Interview with Joan Andrea Hutchinson, 2nd Dec. 2007, Kingston, Jamaica 370 Interview with Mutabaruka, 11th Dec. 2007, Kingston, Jamaica 374 Interview with Prof. Edward Baugh, 11th Dec. 2007, Kingston, Jamaica 378 Interview with Prof. Maureen Warner-Lewis, 12th December 2007, Kingston, Jamaica 384 Interview with Prof. Maureen Warner-Lewis, 30th April 2008, Kingston, Jamaica 389 Interview with Kenneth Ramchand, 9th May 2008, Port of Spain, Trinidad 393 Interview with Prof. Funso Aiyejina, 8th May 2008, Port of Spain, Trinidad 400 Interview with Prof. Gordon Rohlehr, 8th May 2008, Port of Spain, Trinidad 403 Interview with Kendel Hippolyte, J. R. Lee and Jane King, 12th May 2008, Gros Islet, St. Lucia 409 Interview with AJA, 13th May 2008, Bridgetown, Barbados 417 Interview with Lasana M. Sekou – Philipsburg, St. Maarten, 15th May 2008 422 Interview with Rhoda Arrindell, 16th May 2008, Philipsburg, St. Maarten 431 Interview with Carolyn Cooper, 30th May 2008, Kingston, Jamaica 434 Interview with David Rudder, 4th November 2008 438 Appendix B – The presence of African-derived religions and beliefs in West Indian contemporary poetry 443 Introduction 443 Poems: the presence of Haïti 445 The voodoo pantheon 447 Loas: Agwé, Marassa, Shango, Ogun, Legba, Guédé 449 Calabash: gourds & rattles 458 Vévé 460 Haïti: zombies, boloms, and dances 461 Jamaica: obeah and pocomania 464 Conclusion 469 Works Consulted 471	it_IT
dc.identifier.bibliographiccitation	Florian, Sara. "Contemporary West Indian poetry: a 'Creole' aesthetics?". Università Cà Foscari Venezia, tesi di dottorato, 22° ciclo, 2010.	it_IT
dc.degree.discipline	Poesia post-coloniale di lingua inglese	it_IT