Rich Man in His Castle, Poor Ones Take the Street

Description

Rich Man in His Castle, Poor Ones Take the Street: Integrating the ‘Canonical’ Text & Popular Culture – A study on the novel ‘In the Castle of My Skin’ by George Lamming

by Margaret D. Gill

 

It has been established that West Indian literature has played a role in the nationalist aim to validate Afro-Creole contributions to the creation of Caribbean civilization. This study examines how a literary text draws on popular culture to do this.

 

The study also includes an interview with Dr. George Lamming who responds to the hypotheses advanced in the study.

 

Review Quotes

 

“Margaret Gill is as brilliant (and therefore important) a literary critic as any (of the too few) writing out of the Caribbean today.” – Kamau Brathwaite

 

Table of Contents

 

Author’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi

List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1 Carnival/Market Place Masquerade and Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

– Bakhtinian Carnivalesque

– Critical Responses to Bakhtin

– Time in Bakhtin’s Model

– Cricket Carnival

– Limitations of Burton Model

– Market Place Spectacle in Castle

– Feast, Masquerade, Resistance

2 The Grotesque Body: Signifier of Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

– Consuming/Voiding Body

– Storytelling as Grotesque Counter-production

– Bodily Excesses, Social Uncrownings

– The Sexualised Body

– Violent Bodies

3 Overturning Official Rhetorical Modes: The Oral Text/Creole Narrative. . . 109

– Creole Narrative

– Double Talk

– Explaining My ‘Explanitories’

– Jeanette Layne-Clarke: ‘Who Like To Lick She Mout’

– The Overheard

– Linguistic Displacement

– Festive Laughter in a Carnival Novel

– Reliable Rumour

4 Calypso Aesthetic in Castle: Lamming the Kaisonian . . . . . . . . . . 155

– Calypso Form and Function

– Scandalizing the Great

– The Love-Intrigue Tale: Allegory of Freedom

– The Calypsonian / Novelist as Griot

5 Gender Relations in Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

– The Critical Eye on Gender in Castle

– Hearing Women’s Voices

– Women Exercising Choice and Power

– Mothers, Spouses and Old Women

– Women of the Official Class

6 Conclusion: Art Interrogating Life, Theorising Experience: A Dialog with George Lamming . . . . . . . . . . . 235

 

Appendix: Taped Conversation with Dr. George Lamming . . . . . . . . . . .255

Works Consulted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .295

 

 

Print Information

 

Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: November 1st, 2021
Binding: Paperback: Perfect Bound
Cover Finish: Gloss
Page Count: 316
Print ISBN: 978-976-96713-7-9
Trim Size: 6.000″ x 9.000″ (229mm x 152mm)
Spine Width: 0.66110 in (16.79 mm)
Weight: 0.939 lb (425.92 g)