Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender, and The"Vulgar" Body of Jamaican Popular CultureThe language of Jamaican popular culture—its folklore, idioms, music, poetry, song—even when written is based on a tradition of sound, an orality that has often been denigrated as not worthy of serious study. In Noises in the Blood, Carolyn Cooper critically examines the dismissed discourse of Jamaica’s vibrant popular culture and reclaims these cultural forms, both oral and textual, from an undeserved neglect. Cooper’s exploration of Jamaican popular culture covers a wide range of topics, including Bob Marley’s lyrics, the performance poetry of Louise Bennett, Mikey Smith, and Jean Binta Breeze, Michael Thelwell’s novelization of The Harder They Come, the Sistren Theater Collective’s Lionheart Gal, and the vitality of the Jamaican DJ culture. Her analysis of this cultural "noise" conveys the powerful and evocative content of these writers and performers and emphasizes their contribution to an undervalued Caribbean identity. Making the connection between this orality, the feminized Jamaican "mother tongue," and the characterization of this culture as low or coarse or vulgar, she incorporates issues of gender into her postcolonial perspective. Cooper powerfully argues that these contemporary vernacular forms must be recognized as genuine expressions of Jamaican culture and as expressions of resistance to marginalization, racism, and sexism. With its focus on the continuum of oral/textual performance in Jamaican culture, Noises in the Blood, vividly and stylishly written, offers a distinctive approach to Caribbean cultural studies. |
Contents
Me know no law me know no sin transgressive identities and the voice of innocence the historical context | 19 |
Culture an tradition an birthright proverb as metaphor in the poetry of Louise Bennett | 37 |
That cunny Jamma orman representations of female sensibility in the poetry of Louise Bennett | 47 |
Words unbroken by the beat the performance poetry of Jean Binta and Mikey Smith | 68 |
Writing oral history Sistren Theatre Collectives Lionheart Gal | 87 |
Country come to town Michael Thelwells The Harder They Come | 96 |
Chanting down Babylon Bob Marleys song as literary text | 117 |
Slackness hiding from culture erotic play in the dancehall | 136 |
From centre to margin turning history upside down | 174 |
Proverbs from Luise Bennett | 200 |
Jamaican proverbs a gender perspective | 202 |
205 | |
210 | |
Other editions - View all
Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender, and the"Vulgar" Body of Jamaican ... Carolyn Cooper Limited preview - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
African album Anansi Babylon becomes Bob Marley bout bwoy Caribbean Creole critical cyaan dance dancehall discourse DJ's doan dub poetry eena English essays example female feminist fiction film gender girl gwan gwine gyal haffi ideological Island Records Ivan Ivan's Jamaican Creole Jamaican English Jamaican popular culture Jean Binta Breeze Kingston Know No Law Lady language lickle Lionheart literary literature London Louise Bennett Lovindeer Lovindeer's male Marley's meck Mervyn Morris metaphor Mikey Smith mout native nayga ooman oral texts oral/scribal performance poetry Peter Tosh pickney poem poet political Rastafari Rastafarian Rastaman reggae Rhygin scribal sexual Sistren Slackness social song story subversive tajo talk teck teet tell Thelwell's ting tink tradition verbal voice vulgar waan West Indian West Indian Literature woman women words writing
Popular passages
Page 2 - One must assume the feminine role deliberately. Which means already to convert a form of subordination into an affirmation, and thus to begin to thwart it...