Writing from the Margins: Towards an Epistemology of Contemporary African Brazilian Fiction

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID BROOKSHAW
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African Descent ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Skin Colour ◽  
Black Fiction ◽  
Fiction Writers

This chapter discusses the extent to which it is feasible to talk of a black Brazilian literary tradition that is somehow cohesive, conscious of itself and self-reflective. In looking at works by black fiction writers during the second half of the twentieth century, such as Romeu Crusoé, Oswaldo de Camargo, Cuti, Geni Guimarães, Marilene Felinto and Muniz Sodré, it suggests that writers of African descent who self-identify as black Brazilians are to a large extent bound by identification with region as much as they are with skin colour, in a similar way to other ‘ethnic’ writers in Brazil.

Paul Robeson's Othello at the Savoy Theatre, 1930

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-140
Author(s):  
Michael A. Morrison
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African Descent ◽  
High Water ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
High Water Mark

Paul Robeson's Othello, first seen in London during the season of 1929–30, stands as a high-water mark of twentieth-century Shakespearean interpretation. Robeson was the first actor of African descent to appear in an extended-run Shakespearean production at a leading West End venue (Ira Aldridge, whose last London appearance came sixty-five years earlier, had made only three brief appearances at major London theatres). Here, Michael A. Morrison examines the circumstances surrounding Robeson's London Othello in 1930 and the far-reaching influence of his achievement on future generations of performers and playgoers. Michael A. Morrison is a New York-based writer and teacher. He is the author of John Barrymore, Shakespearean Actor (Cambridge University Press, 1997) and the forthcoming Paul Robeson's Othello.

scholarly journals Filial Descent: The African Roots of Postcolonial Literature in Italy

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-77
Author(s):  
Cristina Lombardi-Diop
Keyword(s):  
Strong Influence ◽  
African Descent ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Horn Of Africa ◽  
Black African ◽  
Cultural Autonomy ◽  
Generational Shift ◽  
Narrative Forms

Abstract The essay concentrates on two seminal postcolonial novels by authors of African descent: Cristina Ubax Ali Farah’s Madre piccola (2007) (Little Mother: A Novel) and Gabriella Ghermandi’s Regina di fiori e di perle (2007) (Queen of Flowers and Pearls). It argues that these works give expression to an African diasporic urban generation that is changing the literary legacy of the Horn of Africa. The co-presence of multiple genres, with orality appearing as a strong influence on their written narrative forms, places these novels within the larger formation of a black African literary tradition. By looking at these two novels from an Africanist perspective, the essay takes into consideration their plurilingual interventions, the use of glossaries and linguistic borrowings, alongside the presence of Somali and Amharic cultural references. It highlights the authorial perspective as a ‘filial descent’ that addresses the complexity of a postcolonial generational shift in contemporary African literature. By placing these works within an African literary tradition and showing their critical de-centring of this tradition, the essay reconfigures a possible space of cultural autonomy for African postcolonial writing, away from the Italocentric space of discourse that has so far dominated its critical reception in Italy.

scholarly journals Deceived by orchids: sex, science, fiction and Darwin

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
JIM ENDERSBY
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Popular Fiction ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
New Science ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
The Many

AbstractBetween 1916 and 1927, botanists in several countries independently resolved three problems that had mystified earlier naturalists – including Charles Darwin: how did the many species of orchid that did not produce nectar persuade insects to pollinate them? Why did some orchid flowers seem to mimic insects? And why should a native British orchid suffer ‘attacks’ from a bee? Half a century after Darwin's death, these three mysteries were shown to be aspects of a phenomenon now known as pseudocopulation, whereby male insects are deceived into attempting to mate with the orchid's flowers, which mimic female insects; the males then carry the flower's pollen with them when they move on to try the next deceptive orchid. Early twentieth-century botanists were able to see what their predecessors had not because orchids (along with other plants) had undergone an imaginative re-creation: Darwin's science was appropriated by popular interpreters of science, including the novelist Grant Allen; then H.G. Wells imagined orchids as killers (inspiring a number of imitators), to produce a genre of orchid stories that reflected significant cultural shifts, not least in the presentation of female sexuality. It was only after these changes that scientists were able to see plants as equipped with agency, actively able to pursue their own, cunning reproductive strategies – and to outwit animals in the process. This paper traces the movement of a set of ideas that were created in a context that was recognizably scientific; they then became popular non-fiction, then popular fiction, and then inspired a new science, which in turn inspired a new generation of fiction writers. Long after clear barriers between elite and popular science had supposedly been established in the early twentieth century, they remained porous because a variety of imaginative writers kept destabilizing them. The fluidity of the boundaries between makers, interpreters and publics of scientific knowledge was a highly productive one; it helped biology become a vital part of public culture in the twentieth century and beyond.

scholarly journals Tokkelossie, “’n Boesman, outa Hendrik” en ontkennende close readings

Literator ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 57-74
Author(s):  
H. Willemse
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Structural Refinement ◽  
Scholarly Literature

Tikoloshe, “a Bushman, outa Hendrik” and denialist close readingsThis article explores in two main sections the changing perceptions of Afrikaner folklorists and literary critics on the origins of selected indigenous Southern African oral tales. With the emergence of Afrikaner Nationalism at the end of the nineteenth century, young Afrikaner activists often incorporated indigenous folktales in the development of a nascent Afrikaans literary tradition. Initially, the origins and the authenticity of such written-down versions of performances were rarely in dispute. However, around the mid-twentieth century, a period that coincides with a more confident Afrikaner Nationalism, Afrikaner folklorists came to doubt these original explanations. One prominent scholar in particular advanced views that seemed to favour European influence and structural refinement rather than indigenous origination. The second section ties in with the first in a discussion of the tale, “Klein Riet-alleen-in-die-Roerkuil” from “Dwaalstories en ander vertellings” (1927) by Eugène N. Marais. An intinerant storyteller, Hendrik, originally performed the tale which Marais, immediately following the performance, committed to print. Lately a body of scholarly literature, mostly close readings, came about which diminishes the role of the initial performer in favour of Marais’ writerly aesthetics. The article takes issue with these interpretations and argues for the restoration and recognition of Hendrik’s role as the creator of the initial performances.

The Morality of “Lolita”

1960 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 50-54
Author(s):  
Joseph Gold
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Critical Response ◽  
The Difference

The difference in critical response to Lolita in England and America is interesting and troubling. It cannot be dismissed without comment or merely accepted as a twentieth century phenomenon of intellectual life. It can, I believe, be explained in only one way. In the literature of the United States there is by now a well-established literary tradition which centres around the alien figure in society, the outcast, the lowly and the rejected.

scholarly journals Смерть как событие повседневности в творчестве Алексея Ремизова и Василия Розанова

2018 ◽  
Vol 167 ◽  
pp. 263-273
Author(s):  
Elena Borisova-Yurkovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Early Twentieth Century

Death as an everyday event in the works of Aleksey Remizov and Vasily RozanovThe paper addresses the topic of death in the works of Aleksey Remizov and Vasily Rozanov, the two iconic intellectuals of the early twentieth century in Russia. Based on the works of fiction, essays, articles and correspondence of two writers, study reveals and analyzes the similarities of their philosophical and aesthetics views. It shows how the phenomenon of death is depicted in everyday life and undergoes desacralization. It also includes polemic with the philosophical milieu of the epoch D. Merezhkovsky, P. Florensky and the literary tradition on the example of N. Gogol.Śmierć jako wydarzenie codzienności w twórczości Aleksieja Remizowa i Wasilija RozanowaArtykuł przedstawia temat śmierci w pracach Aleksieja Remizowa i Wasilija Rozanowa — dwóch ikonicznych intelektualistów początku XX wieku. Na materiale utworów literatury pięknej, esejów, artykułów i korespondencji pisarzy autor ujawnia i analizuje podobieństwa ich poglądów filozoficznych i estetycznych. Pokazuje przy tym, jak fenomen śmierci jest włączany do przestrzeni codzienności i ulega desakralizacji. Uwzględnia również polemikę ze środowiskiem filozoficznym epoki Dymitr Mierieżkowski, Paweł Florenski i tradycję literacką na przykładzie Nikołaja Gogola.

scholarly journals Transfer of Knowledge in Twentieth-Century Muslim Ethiopia: The Library of al-Šayḫ al-Ḥāǧǧ Ḥabīb from Wällo

Aethiopica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adday Hernández López
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Transfer Of Knowledge ◽  
Eastern Ethiopia ◽  
Manuscript Tradition ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Shed Light

Although Muslims in Ethiopia are a large part of the total population, nevertheless, their literary tradition and their cultural heritage have, until the present, hardly been studied by the academic community. The present article aims to shed light on the Islamic manuscript tradition in Ethiopia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by focus-ing on several codices owned by al-Šayḫ Ḥabīb, a renowned scholar and respected walī from Wällo, in north-eastern Ethiopia.

scholarly journals BRAZILIAN LEFT-WING LITERATURE

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (41) ◽  
pp. 72-83
Author(s):  
Fan Xing
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Brazilian Literature

Abstract: The rise and development of Left-wing literature in Brazil is closely connected to the obstacles and dilemmas encountered during the evolution of its nation, and it is also inseparable from international political movements and intellectual trends. From the abolishment of slavery and collapse of empire in the nineteenth century, to the establishment and return of dictatorship in the 30s and 60s of the twentieth century, at every moment of crisis, Brazilian left-wing literature always played a seminal role. While criticizing social injustices, it also invigorates the development of modern Brazilian literature by incorporating different forms of language, thoughts and art. It is safe to say that left-wing literature forms a kind of literary tradition in Brazil, as it not only represents a moral and ethical stand, but also innovates the form and aesthetics.

scholarly journals The Moor’s Political Colour: Race and Othello in Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (37) ◽  
pp. 171-190
Author(s):  
Anna Kowalcze-Pawlik
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Racial Stereotypes ◽  
Skin Colour ◽  
The Political ◽  
History Of ◽  
Stage Adaptations ◽  
The Way

This paper provides a brief outline of the reception history of Othello in Poland, focusing on the way the character of the Moor of Venice is constructed on the page, in the first-published nineteenth-century translation by Józef Paszkowski, and on the stage, in two twentieth-century theatrical adaptations that provide contrasting images of Othello: 1981/1984 televised Othello, dir. Andrzej Chrzanowski and the 2011 production of African Tales Based on Shakespeare, in which Othello’s part is played by Adam Ferency (dir. Krzysztof Warlikowski). The paper details the political and social contexts of each of these stage adaptations, as both of them employ brownface and blackface to visualise Othello’s “political colour.” The function of blackface and brownface is radically different in these two productions: in the 1981/1984 Othello brownface works to underline Othello’s overall sense of alienation, while strengthening the existing stereotypes surrounding black as a skin colour, while the 2011 staging makes the use of blackface as an artificial trick of the actor’s trade, potentially unmasking the constructedness of racial prejudices, while confronting the audience with their own pernicious racial stereotypes.

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