Atlantic Cross-Currents: Transatlantiques

"Taken from a poem by Niyi Osundare, "Atlantic Cross Currents/Transatlantiques" was the theme of the 1993 meeting of the African Literature Association, held in Guadeloupe. The term suggested the movement of people, languages, cultures and ideas, the very themes that should be highlighted in the ALA's first meeting to take place in the Caribbean. 1993 marked the quincentennial of Columbus' voyage to Guadeloupe, and rather than entrenched notions of "discovery," ALA members were especially mindful of the coerced movement of millions of Africans through the Middle Passage and their forced entry into brutal servitude in the Americas." "The Caribbean has since served as a crucible for major intellectual movements of black resistance and empowerment, from negritude and Pan-Africanism to creolite. Guadeloupe thus seemed to make plain the necessity of conference participants' reading between the continents to grasp the movement of peoples and cultures not only as an historical reality, but as an ongoing phenomenon that continues to shape the Caribbean and the lands on either sides." "Appropriately, invited guests and participants represented at least four continents: Among them, Guadeloupean novelist Daniel Maximin. Martinician playwright Ina Cesaire and poet/performer Joby Bernabe, Lorna Goodison of Jamaica, Ahmadou Kourouma and Veronique Tadjo of Ivory Coast, Werewere Liking of Cameroon, Kofi Anyidoho of Ghana, Dennis Brutus of South Africa, John Edgar Wideman of the United States." The papers included in this volume are a microcosm of the many presentations made in Guadeloupe and are divided into three clusters. "Currents of Language" focuses on forms of linguistic communication such as Creole and French and literary genres such as tales, epistolary narratives, and travel writing. "Currents of Feminist Riposte" focuses on the construction of gender, memory, history and revolt against patriarchy. Political change and nation-building are the subject of contributions


Buy from Barnes & Noble     Compare Prices