Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- The Coolie Odyssey: A Voyage In Time And Space
- Thrice Victimized: Casting The Coolie
- Surviving Indenture
- Reclaiming The ‘Other’: Diaspora Indians And The Coolie Heritage
- Some Theoretical Premises Of Coolitude
- Conclusion: Revoicing the Coolie
- Poetic And Critical Texts Of Coolitude
- Notes
- Bibliography
Some Theoretical Premises Of Coolitude
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- The Coolie Odyssey: A Voyage In Time And Space
- Thrice Victimized: Casting The Coolie
- Surviving Indenture
- Reclaiming The ‘Other’: Diaspora Indians And The Coolie Heritage
- Some Theoretical Premises Of Coolitude
- Conclusion: Revoicing the Coolie
- Poetic And Critical Texts Of Coolitude
- Notes
- Bibliography
Summary
This chapter reproduces the text of a lengthy interview conducted between Marina Carter (MC) and Khal Torabully (KT) in which the poet and author outlines his evolution and definition of the concept of Coolitude, particularly within the framework of négritude and créolité, and elaborates on key facets of Coolitude, such as the coolie memory and the role of aesthetics and literature. Khal Torabully draws attention to writers whose work may be placed within the literary definition of Coolitude, among them Naipaul and Rushdie.
Césaire, Négritude and Coolitude
MC: You had a very interesting encounter with Aimé Césaire, the great poet from Martinique who coined the word négritude, in December 1997. What is the link between négritude and coolitude?
KT: Aimé Césaire invented the word négritude in the 1920s, in the midst of colonial turmoil. Coolitude was framed in 1992. There are two principal similarities between négritude and coolitude:
– The recollection of a common phase of history and the need to redress the state of oblivion and neglect attached to the condition of the Negro, and to that of the Coolie. The descendants of indentured labourers, like those of slaves, often knew very little of their past history. They were ignorant of the cultural implications of the Voyage. One of the aims of coolitude is also to foster a larger community of vision encompassing the experiences of people of African descent and fostering interaction with the later immigrant groups in those colonial societies, to which coolies migrated in the period immediately following the abolition of slavery, even though Indian labour was already present during slavery. […]
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- CoolitudeAn Anthology of the Indian Labour Diaspora, pp. 143 - 213Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2002
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