Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 Africa and orality
- 2 The folktale and its extensions
- 3 Festivals, ritual, and drama in Africa
- 4 Arab and Berber oral traditions in North Africa
- 5 Heroic and praise poetry in South Africa
- 6 African oral epics
- 7 The oral tradition in the African diaspora
- 8 Carnival and the folk origins of West Indian drama
- 9 Africa and writing
- 10 Ethiopian literature
- 11 African literature in Arabic
- 12 The Swahili literary tradition: an intercultural heritage
- 13 Africa and the European Renaissance
- 14 The literature of slavery and abolition
- 15 Discourses of empire
- 16 African-language literatures of southern Africa
- 17 Gikuyu literature: development from early Christian writings to Ngũgĩ’s later novels
- 18 The emergence of written Hausa literature
- 19 Literature in Yorùbá: poetry and prose; traveling theater and modern drama
- 20 African literature and the colonial factor
- 21 The formative journals and institutions
- 22 Literature in Afrikaans
- References
8 - Carnival and the folk origins of West Indian drama
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- 1 Africa and orality
- 2 The folktale and its extensions
- 3 Festivals, ritual, and drama in Africa
- 4 Arab and Berber oral traditions in North Africa
- 5 Heroic and praise poetry in South Africa
- 6 African oral epics
- 7 The oral tradition in the African diaspora
- 8 Carnival and the folk origins of West Indian drama
- 9 Africa and writing
- 10 Ethiopian literature
- 11 African literature in Arabic
- 12 The Swahili literary tradition: an intercultural heritage
- 13 Africa and the European Renaissance
- 14 The literature of slavery and abolition
- 15 Discourses of empire
- 16 African-language literatures of southern Africa
- 17 Gikuyu literature: development from early Christian writings to Ngũgĩ’s later novels
- 18 The emergence of written Hausa literature
- 19 Literature in Yorùbá: poetry and prose; traveling theater and modern drama
- 20 African literature and the colonial factor
- 21 The formative journals and institutions
- 22 Literature in Afrikaans
- References
Summary
In the amalgam of languages and cultures that is the Caribbean, it is almost impossible to reach complete agreement on the origin of any of the art forms that have emerged as distinctly Caribbean. In colonial times, the European masters naturally replicated their cultures in this new-found milieu, although they did make a few concessions to the presence and input of other communities – the indigenous ones they found on arrival, and those from Africa and from India in particular. In the postcolonial societies of the Caribbean, the newly independent states have found themselves faced with an intriguing cultural choice. On one hand, they can discard what was brought by the Europeans and stick to what they have produced themselves – often labeled “folk” or “local” to set it apart from the more established extra-Caribbean equivalents. On the other, they can retain Eurocentric values, traditions, and art forms, and in so doing risk giving the impression that they are renouncing their cultural independence. Naturally, it would be highly impractical for societies in the West Indies – still the familiar name for the anglophone territories referred to in our title – to attempt to choose one of the foregoing over the other. In reality, several values and traditions have come together to produce authentic, unique art forms that are both similar to those of Europe, and sufficiently dissimilar from them to be distinctly Caribbean or West Indian. Carnival fits this pattern, as does drama.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature , pp. 137 - 152Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000