Here’s my thesis proposal for ENGL 495A/B, my senior honours essay. Enjoy. The proposal is for a 40-50 page final paper, which I will write in Winter 2004.
Archive for July, 2003
Thesis proposal
July 31st, 2003An annotated bibliography for Beatrice Chancy and Whylah Falls
July 8th, 2003Clarke, George Elliot. “Contesting a Model Blackness: A Meditation on African-Canadian African-Americanism, or the Structures of African Canadianité.” Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. 27-70. Clarke argues that despite the proximity of African Canadians to African America, African Canadian literature will not be subsumed by African American literature. He argues that the general relationship between the United States and Canada is reflected in the relationship between African Americans and African Canadians. He asserts that Black America is not a refuge for African-Canadian culture because its attitudes towards it are either “hegemonic dismissal or peremptory annexation”(28). Citing the acknowledged influence of mainstream Canadian culture on African-Canadian writing, Clarke concludes African-Canadian literature will be “rent by regionalism as well as by ethnic and linguistic differences”(61). Punning on model, Clarke terms the result a modal blackness, or African Canadianité.
–. “The Birth and Rebirth of Africadian Literature.” Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. 107-125. Clarke argues that Africadian literature has two beginnings: one in 1785 and one in 1974. Clarke identifies John Marrant’s Narrative of the Lord’s Dealings with John Marrant, a Black as the first Africadian imaginative work. He contends that a corpus of literature did not develop, however, until the destruction of Africville and the subsequent relocation of Africvillers. Clarke identifies Frederick Ward’s Riverlisp: Black Memories as the first Africadian novel and the beginning of the Africadian cultural renaissance. This Africadian Renaissance, Clarke argues, is a “secular recapitulation of the classical religious themes”(122).
–. "Death and Rebirth of Africadian Nationalism.” Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. 288-296. The essay begins as a review of Shelagh Mackensie’s film, Remember Africville. Clarke notes and comments on the obvious aspects of the film (the history of Africville, the various types of footage used in the film, etc. The majority of the essay, however, is concerned with a subtle aspect of the film. Clarke argues that the film depicts the rise of Africadian nationalism. To open his discussion of this aspect of the film, Clarke juxtaposes the film’s title and the famous Québecois slogan, je me souviens. Clarke asserts that the destruction of Africville marked the death of the first Africadian nationalism and that a new nationalism was born of the rubble of Africville. In particular, Clarke asserts that the failure of the old nationalism, metonymically represented by the wooden Seaview United Baptist Church, was a signal to the young generation that a new nationalism was required. Clarke grants that the destruction of Africville should be mourned, but charges that the time for mourning has ended and the time of rebirth has begun.
–. "Canadian Biraciality and Its Zebra Poetics.” Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. 211-237. Noting that mixed-race blacks are a constant problem for would-be black nationalist intellectuals, Clarke contends that since the history of slavery in Canada produced many mixed-race blacks, “mixed-race figures should be activating the imaginations of at least some African-Canadian writers”(212). He outlines two archtypes of the mixed-race black – the traitor and the radical matyr-subversive. Clarke offers Lawrence Hill’s protagonist of Any Known Blood, Cane V, as an example of an African-Canadian interrogation of blackness. Cane V is able to pass for many non-black identities, and he plays with this power. Clarke also examines three Western Canadian black writers: Suzette Mayr, Mercedes Baines and Wayde Compton. He argues that these writers have “challenged puerile categorizations of their complex selves”(232).
–. "No Language is Neutral: Seizing English for Ourselves.” Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. 275-276. Clarke asserts that black writers feel joy in subverting the structures of European grammars and canons. He offers Phillis Wheatley as the first African poet to deform a language. He also states that language cannot be neutral while white society continues to define blackness as its infernal inverse. He concludes, “The word is out.”
–, et al. “Turning an Elephant into a Microphone: A Conversation on Translation and Adaptation.” Canadian Theatre Review 114 (Spring 2003): 47-53. The panel discussion, lead by Clarke, focuses on the difficulties of translating or adapting a text to a new genre. The discussion starts with translations. Clarke asks the panel about the importance of carrying over cultural codes, not just language, during translation or adaptation. Clarke also asks panelists if they had been charged with poorly translating or adapting a text, and, if they had, how they dealt with that accusation. The conversation drifts to the need for surtitles. Clarke asks whether or not there is worth in being traitorous to a text, without apology. Clarkes characterizes translation and adaptation as acts of love and acts of violence and restates his question: why not be violent about it? Near the end of the panel discussion, Clarke talks about adapting Whylah Falls from poem-novel to play and Beatrice Chancy from libretto to verse drama. He asserts that each genre demands its own approach and that adaptations must respect the demands of the new genre.
Cuder-Dominguez, Pilar. “African Canadian Writing and the Narration of Slavery.” Essays on Canadian Writing 80 (Fall 2003): 55-75. Cuder-Dominguez examines three texts: Lawrence Hill’s Any Known Blood, George Elliot Clarke’s Beatrice Chancy, and Dionne Brand’s At the Full and Change of the Moon. Focusing on how each text addresses slavery, Cuder-Dominguez argues that each writer imagines a particular community in a particular way. The analysis of Beatrice Chancy notes that black women’s bodies are commodified. It also discusses some of the play’s European intertexts (Shakespeare, Shelley). Cuder-Dominguez asserts that Beatrice Chancy is “located at the crossroads of European and African concerns”(64). The thesis of the piece is that these texts illustrate both the range of differences between African Canadian writers and their common inheritance: slavery.
Joyette, Anthony. “Beatrice Chancy” [review]. Kola 11.2: 70-4. The review sets Clarke in opposition to other African Canadian writers because of his focus on place. Joyette notes Clarke’s use of history and allusions, and asserts that these things allow Canadians to relate to the narrative. Joyette also notes that Beatrice Chancy counters the myth of Canada as Canaan, as a land free from slavery. He identifies slavery, white supremacy, and the oppression of female sexuality as themes of the play.Joyette also states that Beatrice is a metonym for the Black Canadian spirit and that Francis Chancy is a metonym for Canada’s “cult of white male Empiricism, double standards, and conceitedness in the setting of moral standards”(73).
McNeilly, Kevin. “Word Jazz 2.” rature 165 (Summer 2000): 176-181. McNeilly argues that Beatrice Chancy is a “masterful challenge to the endemic mastery of a racially-exclusive cultural dominant”(178). McNeilly comments on the range of allusions Clarke employs and argues that the drama is not merely an echo of the story of Beatrix Cénci. He cites an allusion to Flaubert’s Fleurs du Mal as an example of how Clarke pulls intertexts into the drama and reshapes them. He calls this method vernacular formalism and asserts that Clarke “inhabits the languge by pushing it to its lyrical limits, exposing the linkages between literary wonderment and human abuse”(177). McNeilly also argues that Beatrice Chancy is political at the level of style. As evidence, he cites an exchange between Beatrice and Lead, wherein Beatrice speaks in two registers: the pristine and the demotic (borrowing the terms from M. NorbeSe Philip). McNeilly concludes his review by comparing Beatrice Chancy to Joe Sealy’s Africville Suite and Wynton Marsalis’s oratorio Blood on the Fields.
Morales, D.M. “The Pervasive Force of Music in African, Caribbean and African American Drama.” frican Literatures 34.2 (Summer 2003): 145-54. Morales argues that music, language, and gesture are interdepent aspects of African, Caribbean, and African American drama. Morales shows the influence of music on three Black writers (one writer characterizes himself as an improvising soloist). Morales also notes that Langston Hughes and Zora Neal Hurston used the blues to structure their unfinished collaboration. Morales asserts that a different use of music, which he calls using music as an organic force, is more common in African and Caribbean drama than it is in African American drama. He cites the death dance in Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman as an example of music as an organic force in drama. The basic thesis of the article is that music, dance, and gesture are strongly interdependent to language, in African, Caribbean, and African American drama.
Moynagh, Maureen. “Mapping Africadia’s Imaginary Geography: An Interview with George Elliot Clarke” [interview]. ARIEL 27.4 (1996): 71-94. The introduction to the interview argues that Clarke re-writes colonial history and re-maps colonial terrain self-consciously, in order to “claim ontological ground denied the black community in the larger Canadian narrative”(72). The interview questions address Clarke’s audience, the commemortive aspect of his poetry, the dangers of nostalgia, the relationship between language, reality, and truth, the meaning of Africadia, the tension of living away from Nova Scotia, the Africadian cultural renaissance, Clarke’s role as a Black poet from Nova Scotia, anti-modern modernity, postcolonialism and colonialism, and nationalism. Clarke comments on his then-upcoming verse play, Beatrice Chancy.
–. “Africville, an Imagined Community.” Canadian Literature 157 (Summer 1998): 14-34. Moynagh argues that Afican-Nova Scotian writers, in imagining Africville, strive to “identify and resist the structural racism that produces and destroys Africvilles”(29). Moreover, Moynagh argues that these ‘Africville texts’ “disrupt the conventional homogeneity of imagined communities” by foregrounding competing imaginations of Africville (30). Moynagh argues that an anti-urban, anti-industrial was a readily available paradigm in Nova Scotia. She also shows that imaginations of Africville, starting with Frederick Ward’s Riverlisp: Black Memories, have been made in many media: poetry, film, drama, music, painting, museum exhibits, fiction and essays. She examines George Elliot Clarke’s early treatments of Africville in Saltwater Spirituals and Deeper Blues and cites his critical work on Africadian nationalism.
Lane, M. Travis. “An Unimpoverished Style: the Poetry of George Elliot Clarke.” Canadian Poetry 16 (Spring-Summer 1985): 47-54. Lane reviews Saltwater Spirituals and Deeper Blues. He places Clarke in opposition to poets in the style of Atwood and Kroetsch, calling their style impoverished and notes that Clarke is unafraid of an audience who does not wish to encounter educated references. Lane asserts that Clarke is comfortable engaging with the history, art, literature and music of Europe, North America and Africa and illustrates his point with an analysis of ‘Musquodoboit Road Church.’ The remainder of the review focuses on technical aspects of Clarke’s poetry. Lane lauds Clarke’s facility with “consonance, assonance, alliteration, rhyme and rhythmic stress”(48). He contends that Clarke common line is short and loosely trochaic. Lane also explores Clarke’s use of imagery and notes that his images cohere better when linked by a “minimal degree of narrative”(51). The review concludes with a close reading of ‘The Emissaries,’ which notes a subtle change from loose trochees to iambs in the final stanza.
Sacuta, Norm. “Beatrice Chancy” [review]. The Canadian Forum 78.882 (Oct 1999): 41-44. Sacuta argues that the philosophical theories that should power the narrative and provide a basis for good characters in fact reinforce, rather than undo, categories of difference. Noting that a libretto is quite different from poetry on the page, Sacuta asserts that the philosophies that motivate the characters – namely, deconstruction and postcolonial theory – are replaced by didactic statements that fail to undo racist and sexist categories. Sacuta cites comments about Beatrice’s rape, by Beatrice, Deal and Dice as laughter-inspiring clichés. He adds that the names of the characters are too blunt and argues that some of the dialogue illustrates an inability to show rather than tell.
Stanford, Ann Folwell. “‘Firewater, that lovers pour for prophets’: Three African American poets – Poetic Pengiuns by William Boyd/Lodestar and Other Night Lights by Nagueyalti Warren/Whylah Falls by George Elliot Clarke” [review]. African American Review 28.4 (Winter 1994): 675. Stanford reviews three volumes of poetry, the first two by African American poets. At the outset of her review, she notes that African American poetry has never been a “monolithic entity”(675). Her review of Whylah Falls notes the many voices of the poem. Standford enumerates some of the forms and genres present in the text and highlights a funny correction in the Whylah Moon. The review concludes with high praise for the text, couched in food metaphors that neatly segue into a closing quotation from ‘The Ballad of Othello Clemence.'
Thomas, H. Nigel. “Some Aspects of Blues Use in George Elliot Clarke’s Whylah Falls.” CLA 43 (September 1999): 1-18. Thomas examines how Clarke employs the blues in Whylah Falls. He argues that Clarke employs the blues in two ways: overtly and covertly (I substitute here ‘covert use of the blues’ for implanting aspects of the blues into prose and poetry; Thomas does not use the word covert). The essay opens with general comments about Whylah Falls. Thomas notes the variety of genres employed in the text and praises the way Clarke fuses African diasporic, European Hellenistic and Judeo Christian traditions. Thomas asserts that the time of the text is the Great Depression, specifically 1935. Thomas’ argues that the blues encodes both the evolution of the phylum, or tribe, and the dialogue between the sexes. Thomas stresses, however, that Clarke does not employ the blues unmodified: he “places on them his personal stamp”(18). Thomas offers ‘Blues for X,’ from section III of the text, as an example of the encoding of the dialogue between the sexes (represented by X and Selah). He also argues that ‘Jordantown Blues’ concludes the dialogue of ‘King Bee Blues’ and ‘Blues for X’(12). Thomas pays close attention to ‘Jordantown Blues’ and comments on its non-traditional aspects. He asserts that the poem lacks the traditional balladic repition, end rhymes and lazy pace, but retains the pain (15).
Workman, Sharon. “Poet’s Philosophy of Beauty: in Person: with Works such as Whylah Falls, George Elliot Clarke Fights Oppression in His Own Way.” Globe And Mail 10 January 1997: C9. The article opens with comments on the importance of beauty to George Elliot Clarke. It relates the story of how, for the stage performance of Whylah Falls: The Play Clarke changed the skin colour of Othello’s murderer: instead of S. Scratch Seville, the murderer was a black man. Clarke states that his poetry is about “what beautiful Black people have done, not what awful white men have done to [them].” Clarke also talks about his responsibility to include Black Nova Scotia in the Black Atlantic and comments on his audience.
Wilson, Ann. “Beatrice Chancy: Slavery, Martyrdom and the Female Body.” Sitting the Other: Re-Visions of Marginality in Australian and English-Canadian Drama. Eds. Marc Maufort and Franca Bellarsi. Brussels: 2001. 267-278. Wilson argues that Beatrice Chancy perpetuates traditional notions of femininity. Wilson identifies the racial-familial conflict inherent in the Chancy family and discusses the sexual exploitation of female slaves. She also opposes Beatrice to Francis and argues that the former represents goodness and that the latter represents evilness. Wilson discusses how Biblical allusions contribute to the play. She argues that Beatrice’s tri-part transformation from traditional female to “phallic avenger” to traditional female deprives Beatrice of her female agency. Wilson concludes by asserting that “the stories of women are told by men, which casts them within the male imaginary of femininity”(278).
Wells, Dorothy. “A Rose Grows in Whylah Falls: Transplanted Traditions in George Elliot Clarke’s ‘Africadia’.” rature 155 (Winter 1997): 56-73. Wells argues that in Whylah Falls Clarke translates, transforms and transplants two European literary traditions: the sonnet sequence and the pastoral. She further argues that this transplantation of form retrieves from the margins “Black Nova Scotian voices that might otherwise have been lost or silenced”(72). In her discussion of the sonnet sequence, Wells asserts that, just as early European sonnets voiced personal material previously without voice in European literature, Clarke’s transplantation of the sonnet sequence gives voice to the concerns of a “marginalized racial group,” namely Africadians. The transplantation of the pastoral tradition is treated in greater detail than the sonnet sequence. Wells’ argues that Clarke works with and against the pastoral tradition by offering both the golden glory and “harsh bleakness” of Africadia (57). In considering the liminal figure of the pastoral tradition, Wells’ argues that the role of liminal figure is played by four characters: the three poets, X, Pablo and Othello; and Shelley. Her examination progresses through each of Whylah Falls’ seven sections. She notes the fusion of “many elements from Euro-American literary traditions with local Black idioms”(63). Wells aligns each of the seven sections with a different theme:I: X’s unrequited love for Shelley (60); II: the darker side of human relationships (63); III: narcissitic love (66); IV: the beauty of emotional love (67); becoming beautiful after pain (68); VI: the association of beauty with holiness and death (69); VII: the value of beauty’s power (71).
Verduyn, Christl. “Opera in Canada: a Conversation.” Interview with Linda Hutcheon and George Elliot Clarke. Journal of Canadian Studies 35.3 (Fall 2000): 184-98. The interview deals with the situation of opera in Canada. Christl Verduyn asked Linda Hutcheon and George Elliot Clarke to “locate opera on Canada’s cultural landscape as we head into the twenty-first century”(184). Hutcheon and Clarke discuss and comment upon a wide range of issues: the economics of opera, its appeal to rock concert-going youth, the postmodern aspects of the form, and its history, in Canada and the world. Hutcheon points out the prominence of enormous, unmiked voices, especially in small-scale opera. Hutcheon and Clarke point out the importance and benefits of surtitles, which were introduced in 1984 by the Canadian Opera Company. Clarke comments on the rewards of hearing his words come back at him from actors and singers.
Zimmermann, Cynthia. “Drama 1999” [review]. University of Toronto Quarterly 70.1 (Winter 2000/2001): 246-71. Zimmermann reviews both of Clarke’s plays: Beatrice Chancy and Whylah Falls: The Play. She summarizes the plot of Beatrice Chancy and notes its lush and ornate language. She asserts that, while this type of language is appropriate for a verse drama and libretto, it seems excessive and distracting in Whylah Falls. She also notes the prominent musical elements in Whylah Falls.
Theory of transtextuality
July 6th, 2003Gérard Genette’s five subtypes of transtextuality provide a good basis for workable theory of transtextuality. The four subtypes of inter-, para-, archi-, and hypotextuality are particularly useful for critics of contemporary literature because they provide a convenient framework for effectively organizing the many instances of transtextuality in texts. In some contemporary texts, a thorough analysis of transtextuality would be very muddled without an organizing framework such as Genette’s.
