Allen-Paisant, J orcid.org/0000-0002-5705-0522 (2021) Dante in Caribbean Poetics: Language, Power, Race. In: Gragnolati, M, Lombardi, E and Southerden, F, (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Dante. Oxford Handbooks . Oxford University Press , pp. 668-685. ISBN 9780198820741
Abstract
This chapter considers the reception of Dante in Caribbean literature. It explores the works of two seminal Afro-Caribbean poets, the Barbadian Edward Kamau Brathwaite and the Jamaican Lorna Goodison, examining their relationship to Dante’s Commedia and De vulgari eloquentia. The chapter discusses the import of these two texts and of the figure of Dante in the articulation of Brathwaite’s seminal concept of ‘nation language’ and in Goodison’s theorizations of rhetoric, which highlight the epistemic dimensions of language, particularly in the colonial and postcolonial contexts. The chapter shows how the figure and work of Dante have been instrumental for these two writers in their exploration of the entangled concerns of language, race, and power in the colonial continuum. In so doing, the chapter highlights similarities, while underscoring differences, between Caribbean poets’ engagement with the figure and work of Dante and the reception of the Italian poet among African-American writers.
Metadata
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © the various contributors 2021. This is an author produced version of a book chapter published in The Oxford Handbook of Dante . Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | postcolonial, Caribbean, language, race, power, African-American, Lorna Goodison, Kamau Brathwaite |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Languages Cultures & Societies (Leeds) > French (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Leverhulme Trust ECF-2016-536 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 29 Aug 2019 10:25 |
Last Modified: | 29 Jan 2024 11:47 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Series Name: | Oxford Handbooks |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198820741.013.42 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:150178 |