scholarly journals Expatriate Kenyan poetry: Marjorie Phyllis Oludhe Macgoye and Stephen Derwent Partington

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 172-178
Author(s):  
Natal’ya S. Frolova
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Language Poetry ◽  
East African ◽  
Interesting Phenomenon ◽  
Poetic Work

English-language poetry in Kenya emerges and begins to develop in the 1970s, a decade later than the Ugandan one. It was at this time that the first truly brilliant examples of poetic work appeared – these are poems of Jared Angira and Micere Githae Mugo, who later became classics of Kenyan literature, whose work characterises the two main directions of Kenyan English-language poetry of the second half of the 20th century – critical-realistic and philosophical-mystical [Frolova: 75–90]. Studying the English-language poetry of Kenya draws attention to such an interesting phenomenon as the Kenyan poetry of expatriate writers. These are the creative work of Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye and the Stephen Partington, whose creative work cannot be called typical for East African literature. Both Macgoye and Partington are ethnic British, who had moved, each at own time, to Kenya and devoted themselves to literature, and, what is most important, called Kenya their homeland and themselves, Kenyans. In their poems, one can feel sincere love for the land, which has become their home, sympathy for Africans who suffer social injustice, and huge efforts to understand African reality through the eyes of a European.

Poetry of East Africa: from the mid-20th till present

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalya S. Frolova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Poetry ◽  
East African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
Literary Process ◽  
First Time

The book deals with the development of English and Swahili poetry in three East African countries: Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. It covers the period from the late 1960s to the present day. For the first time in the world African literary studies, the researcher created a comprehensive picture of the East African literary process of the second half of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century. The author analyzes two branches of modern East African poetry, such as the English-language poetry of Uganda and Kenya and the Swahili poetry of Kenya and Tanzania, by dwelling on the works of over 30 modern East African poets. An extensive poetic corpus is used to characterize its themes and artistic features. The poetry of modern East African authors is analyzed considering the culture, traditions, and realities of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.

scholarly journals Devices of comic in the work of the 20th century English-speaking Ugandan poets

2019 ◽  
pp. 140-144
Author(s):  
Natal'ya S. Frolova
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Poetry ◽  
East African ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Made In

Poetry of the Ugandans are analysed in an article in the context of the use of devices of comic in the East African English-language poetry. The critical-realistic and enlightener tendencies that were eagerly apprehended by most East African authors in the 1960s have not allowed them going beyond the direct criticism of damning poetry to this day as well, although point-by-point attempts to use humour and satire when contemplating socio-political issues, do occur throughout the sixty-year existence of East Africa English-language poetry. The dilogy by Okot p’Bitek, Timothy Wangusa and Taban Lo Liyong are clear examples of such attempts made in Uganda literature. At the same time, the three authors use fundamentally different techniques of comic, when portraying modern reality, both purely African and universal human.

Towards a theory of sporadic rhyming

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roi Tartakovsky
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Poetry ◽  
The Core ◽  
Core Characteristics

A surprising amount of 20th-century (and earlier) English-language poetry employs rhyme, but not the rhyme we normally think of, which marks the end of the line in metrical poetry, but a kind of half-intentional half-accidental rhyme that can appear anywhere within the text. This type of rhyming, which I term ‘sporadic’ and distinguish from ‘systematic,’ has illuminating potential as it relies on, but also departs from traditional rhyme functions. As such, it asks for a new theorization. In this essay I elaborate the core characteristics of sporadic rhyming, and then exemplify and qualify these through a series of readings.

Fartspottings: Reflections on “high seriousness” and poetic passings of wind

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Nester
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
American Poetry ◽  
Language Poetry ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractThe mention of farts in English language poetry has changed just as the role of poetry in our lives. This essay offers a survey of the uses and mentions of the word fart and the act of farting in poetry, centering around poet and critic Matthew Arnold's notion of “high seriousness” as the ideal place for poetry, as well as poet Robert Lowell's idea of the “raw and cooked” in 20th century American poetry. Questions posed: Can poetry and the mention of farts coexist? Can both anti-academic and academic poets' farts find their way to the page in a post-post-“high seriousness” age?

scholarly journals THE TRADITION OF ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ELEGY AND J. BRODSKY’s POETRY

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 1030-1036
Author(s):  
E.A. Markova
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Present Article ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Language Poetry ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
The Usa

In the present article J. Brodsky’s poetry is analyzed in the context of a particular elegiac tradition associated with some key figures of English-language poetry of the mid-to-late 20th century. These are W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden and S. Heaney. The aim of the article is to examine the continuity of the 20th century English poetry by the example of a sequence of dedication poems (elegies), in which each subsequent poem alludes to the previous one(s). The comparative method allows us not only to show the features of modern English-language poetry (for instance, the link between elegiac mood and reflection on the purpose of poetry), but also to analyze the influence of poets’ interpersonal contacts on their works. Special emphasis is put on J. Brodsky’s poetry as it may seem extraneous to the English-language tradition in question. The analysis of Brodsky’s personal and creative biography, his particular dedication poems and essays allows us to find the links between the Russian poet and the literary tradition of Great Britain, Ireland and the USA.

scholarly journals East African Literature and the Gandasation of Metropolitan Language – Reading from Jennifer Makumbi’s Kintu

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-97
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Adeniyi
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
English Language ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Story Telling ◽  
East African ◽  
Indigenous Knowledges ◽  
Literary Expression ◽  
The Core ◽  
Historical Text ◽  
Unique Style

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is, without doubt, one of the finest literary writers to have come out of East Africa. The Ugandan has succeeded in writing herself into global reckoning by telling a completely absorbing and canon-worthy epic. Her creative impulse is compelling, considering her narration of a riveting multi-layered historiography of (B)-Uganda nation in her debut novel, Kintu. With her unique style of story-telling and intelligent use of analepsis and prolepsis to (re)construct spatial and temporal settings of a people’s history, Makumbi succeeds in giving readers an evocative historical text. In narrating the aetiological myth of her people, Makumbi bridges metonymic gaps between two languages – core and marginal. She deliberately attenuates the expressive strength of the English language in Kintu by deploying her traditional Luganda language in the text so as to achieve certain primal goals. The present study seeks to disinter these goals by examining the use of Metonymic Gaps as a postcolonial model to construct indigenous knowledges within a Europhone East African text. The study also mines overall implications of this practice for East African Literature. I argue that, just like her contemporaries from other parts of Africa, Makumbi projects Luganda epistemology to checkmate European linguistic heteronomy on East African literary expression. Her intentionality also revolves around the need to bend the English language and force it to carry the weight of Luganda socio-cultural peculiarities. Consequently, her text becomes a locus of postcolonial disputations where the marginal jostles for supremacy with the core in East African literary landscape.

«The Forties, Fateful…» in David Samoylov’s Poetry: a Lingvo-stylistic Analysis of Three Poems about War (To the 100th Anniversary of the Birth)

2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-69
Author(s):  
E. A. Frolova
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
100Th Anniversary ◽  
Stylistic Analysis ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
War Poetry ◽  
Artistic Manner ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Linguistic Means

The article presents an analysis of three poems about war («The Tale of Our Lady and Russian Soldiers» («Slovo o Bogoroditse i Russkih Soldatah»), «The Attack» («Ataka»), «The Forties» («Sorokovye»)) written by D. Samoylov in different periods of his creative activity. On the basis of the existing research of the creative work of the famous poet of the 20th century, a multilevel characteristic of his war lyrics is given. The aim of the article is to characterize the specific features of the poetic language of such an original author by means of a lingvo-stylistic analysis of D. Samoilov’s poems, to reveal the richness and diversity of his artistic manner. The following research methods were used: analytical reading, comparative analysis, ontological method, a multilevel analysis of poetry. The author accentuates reminiscences in D. Samoilov’s war poetry, the contrast and contrast means, repetition as an artistic device, paronomasia in the stylistic mixture of linguistic means belonging to different levels. A multidimensional poet’s approach to the theme of the war is the conclusion of the article.

Leonīds Vīgners – komponists

2021 ◽  
pp. 352-360
Author(s):  
Inese Žune
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Practical Method ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Piano Sonata ◽  
Extensive Form ◽  
Musical Education ◽  
Composition Class ◽  
Percussion Instruments ◽  
Instrumental Works

The aim of the article is to highlight the creative work of the outstanding 20th- century Latvian conductor and pedagogue Leonīds Vīgners in the field of composition. The facts are based on the materials of Leonīds Vīgners’s archives found in the Museum of Literature and Music, which allows tracing the entire, versatile activities of the musician. Leonīds’s understanding of music, much like that of his sisters Beatrise, Meta, and prematurely deceased brother Vitālis, developed early in childhood, when they became the examples of the success of the new practical method of absolute musical hearing championed by their father Vīgneru Ernests. Later, the talented musician received a comprehensive musical education at the Latvian Conservatory. In addition to conducting the orchestra, playing the organ and percussion instruments, he also graduated from the composition class of Jāzeps Vītols. In the 1920s and 1930s, Leonīds Vīgners composed a range of instrumental works, from simple minuets to an extensive form of a piano sonata. In total, the museum’s collection contains 16 manuscripts of his instrumental works. The largest part of Leonīds Vīgners’s work consists of his solo and choir songs composed or reworked in different periods of time. He has mentioned that he has composed about 80 solo and 300 choir songs, but some of them perished during the war. Examining the manuscripts of Leonīds Vīgners’s songs, as well as many drafts that have been included in the collection of the Museum of Literature and Music, it can be concluded that he attached great importance to the words that evoked his musical ideas. Leonīds Vīgners always remained himself, with his own views on music and Latvian nationalism. However, behind his seemingly harsh exterior, there was a sensitive and fragile soul, which is truly revealed in his compositions with the plastic, bittersweet sense of melody characteristic to the Romantics and at times the impressionistic freshness and subtlety of his harmonies.

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