Category Archives: Americas

Nonsecular: William Faulkner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison

April 19, 2014 Toni Morrison says in a Paris Review interview: “I always get up and make a cup of coffee while it is still dark—it must be dark—and then I drink the coffee and watch the light come.”   … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, Americas, Comparative literature, Magical realism, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Stuart Hall and vernacular modernity

February 14, 2014 The passing of Stuart Hall makes me go back to his seminal essay, “Negotiating Caribbean Identities,” where he talks about “vernacular modernity” as the “modernity of the blues, of gospel music, of hybrid black music in its … Continue reading

Posted in African languages, African-American music, Americas, Auditory field, Caribbean literature, Contemporary novel, Igbo, indigenous communities, Music, Native American language | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Equiano’s Turkey

November 28, 2013 Yes, according to Mark Forsyth, the Thanksgiving bird is named after a country 4429 miles away. But not the first to be so named.  In fact, the original turkey was a guinea fowl from Madagascar, brought to … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Afro-Asian alliances, Americas, Atlantic, Diaspora, Turkey, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Animals in Chicago

November 6, 2013 It seems right that the theme this year for the Chicago Humanities Festival should be “Animals: What Makes us Human.”   This city, after all, used to be called (and maybe is still called) hog butcher for … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, Animals, Atlantic, Diaspora, Environmentalism, Ethnicity, indigenous communities, Race, Spanish, World history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mama Day: The Tempest in the Global South

October 2, 2014 Her name is Miranda (“Mama”) Day — yes, that Miranda, the one who said, “Oh, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is!” Gloria Naylor is not the first to take on Shakespeare, of course. … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Americas, Caribbean literature, Contemporary novel, Gender, Global South, Race, slavery, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Beyond a Boundary: C. L. R. James in Glasgow

May 13, 2013 Scotland and the Caribbean?   The architecture of Glasgow tells a dramatic story.   Here, in the center of town, is  the many-pillared Gallery of Modern Art,  monumental  even for a museum, which used to be the … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, architecture, Atlantic, Caribbean literature, Cities, Colonization, Contemporary Art, film medium, Global South, oceans, Race, scale, slavery, Sports, Twentieth century literature, Universities | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Elizabeth Bishop: “Brazil, January 1, 2015” or “Manuelzinho:?

May 1, 2015 The Table of Contents, the print anthology as a finite, bounded object — they loom large.   While they do that, though, this blog is going to hold out for a little longer, not going there yet. … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, Brazil, Colonization, Food in literature, Global South, indigenous communities, Latin America, Poetry, Portuguese, Racial violence, Twentieth century literature, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Brazil: Karen Tei Yamashita, Elizabeth Bishop

April 24, 2013 Both write about human efforts that come to nothing.   Bishop’s Manuelzinho begins bravely, planting gardens that ravish the eye: beds of  cabbages edged with red carnations, lettuces with alyssum.   But then “silver umbrella ants arrive,/ or it … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, Asian-American literature, Brazil, Contemporary novel, Environmentalism, Ethnicity, Genre, Global South, indigenous communities, lyric, Magical realism, Poetry, Science fiction, Twentieth century literature, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop: Boston Marathons

April 17, 2013 He writes only about the Civil War dead: Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the soldiers from the all-black 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, captured in bronze by August Saint-Gaudens. The sculpture isn’t all that close to the finish … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, Cities, collaboration, Letters, Public art, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mangoes: Richard Blanco, Sandra Cisneros

January 9, 2013 Conceived in Cuba, born in Spain, raised and educated in Miami– that’s Richard Blanco, as described by the inaugural planners. What poem would he be reciting on January 20? It’s not so easy to guess based on … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, Cities, Contemporary literature, Cuba, Diaspora, Ethnicity, Food in literature, Global South, Latino/a literature, Poetry, Spanglish, Vernacular dialects | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment