Research Catalog

Title

The demands of a new idiom : music, language, and participation in the work of Amiri Baraka, Kamau Brathwaite, and Linton Kwesi Johnson / by Amor Kohli.

Author

Kohli, Amor.

Publication

2005.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Tufts University. Dept. of English.

Description

vi, 206 leaves; 29 cm.

Summary

"The Demands of a New Idiom" is a comparative study of the often-contradictory attempts by three poets---Amiri Baraka, Kamau Brathwaite, and Linton Kwesi Johnson---in the United States, the West Indies, and England, respectively---to articulate a model that expresses and reflects a political aesthetic through the construction of what I designate a "poetics of participation." This poetics is best elaborated through verse that attempts a transformation of the consciousness of the target audience through the use of the rhythms, language and concerns of that very target audience. These writers place the poetic text into a dialectical relationship with the political grassroots movements by which they were influenced and in which they were, to varying degrees, involved. By addressing the way in which these writers employ the formal innovations of black music and black language, I make the claim that there is a transfusive hope that runs through the poetry in this study: that through the collaboration of form and content, a profound altering of both poetic and political form would be achieved. Imagining a new relationship with politics, culture, and the people requires a new kind of political and cultural engagement; in short, it demands the formations of new idioms. Beginning with the 1955 Bandung Conference as its locus, Chapter I sets out some of the historical, literary, and musical parameters for a poetics of participation. Chapter II moves onto a discussion of Amiri Baraka's work during the 1960s, focusing on the volume with which he ends the decade, 1969's Black Magic Poetry. The third chapter discusses Kamau (Edward) Brathwaite's epic of the black world, The Arrivants and examines the role of improvisation and characterizations in that text's participatory aesthetic. Finally, Chapter IV discusses the poetry written in the 1970s and early 1980s by the Black British poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. By placing his poetry into the context of resurgent white British nationalism, I discuss the ways in which his work serves to construct and depict a defensively organized community under attack.

Alternative Title

Music, language, and participation in the work of Amiri Baraka, Kamau Brathwaite, and Linton Kwesi Johnson

Subjects

• Experimental poetry > History and criticism
• Electronic resources (Theses/Dissertations)
• Johnson, Linton Kwesi, 1952- > Criticism and interpretation
• Baraka, Amiri, 1934-2014 > Criticism and interpretation
• Poetry > Black authors > History and criticism
• Brathwaite, Kamau, 1930-2020 > Criticism and interpretation

Genre/Form

Electronic resources (Theses/Dissertations)

Note

• Adviser: Modhumita Roy.
• Submitted to the Dept. of English.

Thesis (note)

• Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2005.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Additional Formats (note)

• Also available via the World Wide Web;

Reproduction (note)

• Photocopy.

Call Number

Sc D 09-1247

OCLC

190835577

Author

Kohli, Amor.

Title

The demands of a new idiom : music, language, and participation in the work of Amiri Baraka, Kamau Brathwaite, and Linton Kwesi Johnson / by Amor Kohli.

Imprint

2005.

Thesis

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2005.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references.

Additional Formats

Also available via the World Wide Web; Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community.

Reproduction

Photocopy. Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI Dissertation Services. 2005. vi, 206 p. ; 23 cm

Connect to:

Connect to Dissertations & Theses @ Tufts University.

Added Author

Tufts University. Dept. of English.

Research Call Number

Sc D 09-1247