Preview

Rastafarians in Post-Independence Caribbean Poetry in English

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
6872 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Rastafarians in Post-Independence Caribbean Poetry in English
Rastafarians in Post-Independence Caribbean Poetry in English (the 1960s and the 1970s): from Pariahs to Cultural Creators
Eric DOUMERC, Maître de conférences - Université Toulouse 2 – Le Mirail erdoum@aol.com

L’objectif de cet article est d’examiner plusieurs modes de représentation des Rastafariens dans la poésie antillaise anglophone des années 1960 et 1970. Après s’être attardé sur le contexte historique et culturel, il sera question de trois tendances générales dans la représentation des Rastafariens pendant cette période. Dans certains poèmes, les Rastas apparaissent comme des parias et des idéalistes qui ont fondé leur vie entière sur un rêve absurde. D’autres poètes ont vu chez les Rastas le symbole de l’absurdité de la vie de l’homme, qui attend une certaine délivrance avec patience. Enfin, il existe une autre tradition dans la poésie antillaise anglophone qui a tendance à considérer le Rasta comme le vecteur d’une nouvelle culture créole et donc on mettra l’accent sur l’apport culturel des Rastas, par exemple en ce qui concerne les codes linguistiques et symboliques.

This article proposes to look at the way Rastafarians were portrayed in various ways by West Indian poets in the 1960s and 1970s. After paying attention to the historical and cultural context, the article focuses on three main strands in the portrayal of Rastafarians at the time. In a number of poems, Rastas emerged as pariahs and idealists who based their life on a fantasy. Other poets saw the Rastafarians as the symbols of the absurdity of man’s condition, patiently waiting for some kind of deliverance. Lastly, another tradition in West Indian poetry in English tends to look at the Rastafarians as the bearers of a new, creole culture and the emphasis is laid on their contribution to Caribbean culture in terms of language and symbolism.

The 1960s in the English-speaking Caribbean were a troubled period and a time of change. Independence (in 1962 for Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    First of all, the diction in this poem is vernacular. The language that this poem is written in is Creole because the author is in fact a Jamaican. This style of writing or language affects the theme greatly. For it does not only explain how stereotyping is in this culture but it transfers on to other cultures as well. This includes the author’s image of it affecting all the educated and uneducated people of Jamaica. Stereotyping is not only present in Jamaica, or only with the low class or the high class. It is present everywhere and the fact that the words in this poem are Creole inflect this message on the reader.…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    text 6

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The purpose of this text is to try and have an influence on the way Caribbean culture is viewed…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: Arnold, A. James (1997), A History of Literature in the Caribbean (USA: John Benjamin Publishing Company);…

    • 2637 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Brereton, Bridget, and Kevin A. Yelvington, eds. The Colonial Caribbean in Transition: Essays on Post-emancipation Social and Cultural History. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999.…

    • 4291 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cited: Ali, Schavi Mali. "Claude McKay." Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940. vol. 52. Ed.:Trudier Harris. Detroit: Gale Research Inc, 1987. 201-212.…

    • 2862 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gwendolyn Bennett Heritage

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Since African ‘Americans’ have arrived off of the slave ship that sailed through the middle passage, African Americans have struggled with what it means to be African and what it means to be American. Although centuries have passed since the chattel slave ship filled with Africans has landed on American soil, even presently today African Americans are caught in an internal power struggle between being an American and being an African American as well. Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, and Gwendolyn Bennet are phenomenal African American poets who perfectly depict the internal conflict of being stuck between two clashing cultures. The poets not only describe the struggle of being African and American but they also describe what Africa means…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Checkin' Out Me History

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Toussaint L’Ouverture, Mary Seacole, Shaka the Zulu. Have you ever heard of them? If not, it is probably because from a young age, we have all been taught history but were we given all the facts or just being ignorant? Many of the historic and inspirational figures we have learnt about are based in the culture of England but what about the black historic figures because some of these made a huge difference to our lives. John Agard is a poet from Guyana who writes passionately but often and politically and seriously. In one of his poems-“Checkin’ out me history” he questions why some of these great black historic leading figures were pushed away when they truly deserve our respect. In this essay, I will investigate the following question-“How does Agard use language and structure to convey his feelings in ‘Checkin’ out me history’?”…

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Environmental factors – noise, poor lighting can prevent a person from noticing non-verbal communication and could reduce a hearing impaired person’s ability to lip-read. Also being too hot or cold cause discomfort and those that lack privacy discourage people from expressing their feelings and problems.…

    • 1822 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Caribbean Music

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages

    What is meant by Caribbean music in a new mode? What emphasis, in this chapter, seems to justify a departure from traditional presentations of music and culture of the Caribbean?…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Claude Mckay

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Winston, James "Becoming the People's Poet: Claude McKay's Jamaican Years, 1889-1912". Small Axe - Number 13 (Volume 7, Number 1), March 2003,…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Rastafari and Vodou

    • 2445 Words
    • 10 Pages

    In comparing and contrasting the Haitian and Jamaican experiences, I am going to focus on three themes that are consistent in both: history of oppression, Africanism and Christian influence. Both experiences grew out of systems of slavery and subsequent racism. It is interesting to recognize how African traditions were maintained in both instances and how they are incorporated in the Vodou tradition and the Rastafarian movement. It is also interesting how each respond differently to Christian influences.…

    • 2445 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays
    • 3056 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The New Negro Renaissance, or Harlem Renaissance as it is familiarly known, was the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. With the attraction of numerous African American writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars with the desire to flee the South’s oppressive caste system, the streets of Harlem sprouted with newly youthful African Americans all determined to achieve success. Many poetic words uplifted young blacks and inspired them to become greater than the oppressors expected. Langston Hughes’s “A Raisin in the Sun” (1951) asks questions regarding dreams and the effects of a dream that goes ignored or becomes postponed. Andy Razaf’s “What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue” (1926) is an overview of radical discrimination. Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” (1978) responds to decades and centuries of oppression and mistreatment. Langston Hughes’s famous poem The Weary Blues won first prize in the Opportunity Magazine Literary Competition. Andy Razaf’s early poems that were published in 1917-1918 appeared in The Hubert Harrison – Edited Voice, the first newspaper of the New Negro Movement. In 1994, Maya Angelou was awarded a Grammy Award in the Best Spoken Word category on behalf of On the Pulse of Morning. “A Raisin I the Sun”, “What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue”, and “Still I Rise” illustrate the visibility and intensity of the New Negro Renaissance era where a major shift in the degree exceled to which black people could and did claim the authority to speak about and represent themselves and their experiences.…

    • 1207 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    African American Culture

    • 1998 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The impact of West Indian slavery on the cultural landscape of the Caribbean cannot be under estimated or taken for granted. In the entire discourse on West Indian slavery, it is often taken for granted that the discussion centers solely on enslaved Africans. However, slavery brought to the region not only African but Europeans (Spaniards, French and British) and consequent to its abolition, there was the advent of the east Indians. We see the impact of their influence in the names of places; the foods we eat; our music and dance; our arts and craft, gender and sexuality. As these and other anecdotal evidences are examined and the academic contributions of others are analysed, Caribbean culture will be clearly defined and its origin established. Slavery and its attending impact upon Caribbean culture have been both positive and negative as remnants of the social/class system of the “plantocracy” linger and take deeper root in the Caribbean community, in general and the Jamaican landscape, in particular.…

    • 1998 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    African American Literature can often be characterized by having a dual identity, especially in the early to mid-twentieth century. This dual reality is reflective of the African American’s heritage and present circumstances. With a heritage of forced immigration into the country, and limited rights and racism after slavery is abolished, there is a borderline pride and hatred. It is very possible to have both of these feelings, and authors reveal this confusing notion through the expression of poetry. Yes, the writers are proud of being Americans, but at the same time, are always conscience of the fact that in the land of opportunity, the color of their skin will perhaps always be not only noticed but also will limit them and their children.…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics