Francis Gilbert

25–39 Fail Represents an overall failure to achieve the appropriate learning outcomes. A limited understanding of a social and cultural studies knowledge base. Limited argumentation; little evaluation.

40–49 Pass Represents the overall achievement of the majority of the appropriate learning outcomes to a pass level. A limited understanding of a social and cultural studies knowledge base. Some argumentation; limited evaluation.

50–59 Good Represents the overall achievement of the appropriate learning outcomes to a good level. Understanding of a social and cultural studies knowledge base. Clear argumentation and evaluation.Understanding of methodological issues.

60–69 Very good Represents the overall achievement of the appropriate learning outcomes to a very good

level. Full understanding of a social and cultural studies knowledge base.

Complex argumentation and evaluation.Understanding of

methodological issues.

70–79 Excellent Represents the overall achievement of the appropriate learning outcomes to an excellent

level. Full understanding of a social and cultural studies knowledge base. Complex argumentation and evaluation. Understanding of methodological issues. Comparative. Self reflective.

80–89 Outstanding Represents the overall achievement of the appropriate learning outcomes to an outstanding level. Deep understanding of a social and cultural studies knowledge base. Complex argumentation and evaluation. Deep understanding of methodological issues. Comparative. Self reflective.

90–100 Exceptional Represents the overall achievement of the appropriate learning outcomes to an exceptionally accomplished level.

SECTION A: Caribbean Literature Why has the idea of a national

language been problematic for Caribbean writing?

2. Discuss the significance of ‘place’ in Caribbean writing?

3. Examine the treatment of ONE of the following in Caribbean writing: Empire; The USA; The idea of rebellion; Race

SECTION B: English Literature Discuss the Victorian sense of

Englishness as it is conveyed in the writing of the period.

5. Why has ‘aristocracy’ been an important idea in the writing of the period?

Consider the treatment of ONE of the following in English writing:

History Trade and empire Urbanisation The ‘Oriental’

SECTION C: Irish Literature in English 7. Why has ‘revivalism’

been so important to Irish writers? In what ways has Irish writing of the

period been ‘political’? Consider the treatment of ONE of

the following in Irish writing: (a) the land (b) the

‘Troubles’ (c) Irish

mythology (d) the English

Francis Gilbert

Michael Smith, usually referred to as Mikey Smith (14 September 1954 - 17 August 1983), was a Jamaican dub poet.[1] Along with Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Mutabaruka, he was one of the most well-known dub poets. In 1978, Michael Smith represented Jamaica at the 11th World Festival of Youth and Students in Cuba. His album Mi Cyaan Believe It includes his best known poem of the same name. He had left-anarchist leanings and Rastafarian sympathies. Smith was allegedly murdered by political opponents associated with the right-wing Jamaica Labour Party after heckling the Jamaican Minister of Culture at a political rally on August 17, 1983.

Smith was educated at Kingston College and the St George's College Extension School. He also studied at the Jamaican School of Drama with Jean 'Binta' Breeze and Oku Onuora. Linton Kwesi Johnson released some of Smith’s work on his LKJ label. Smith appeared on the BBC television series Ebony and the BBC also broadcast a documentary based on his association with Johnson. "Mi Cyaan Believe It" is most remembered for Smith’s heartfelt phrase "Laaawwwd - mi cyaan believe it - mi seh - mi cyaan believe it". In 1982, Smith released his debut album and performed extensively in Europe supporting such acts as Gregory Isaacs. Smith recorded a session for John Peel which was broadcast by the BBC on 4 May 1982. [2] He continued to work as a social worker representing prisoners in Gun Court. His outspoken commentary on the “isms and schisms of ‘politricks”’ in Jamaica led to his life being cut short. Michael Smith was stoned to death following a clash at a political rally, which sadly occurred on Marcus Garvey's birthday.

Linton Kwesi Johnson, during a presentation on Smith’s life and work at the second Caribbean Conference on Culture at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus, had the following to say about him: “The late Jamaican poet, Michael Smith, was to my mind one of the most interesting and original poetic voices to emerge from the English-speaking Caribbean during the last quarter of the 20th century". [3]

Linton Kwesi Johnson, who produced Smith's first and only album in London, also wrote the following in an article for the Jamaica Observer: "In 1978, Michael Smith represented Jamaica at the 11th World Festival of Youth and Students in Cuba. That year, saw the release of his first recording, a single titled, "Word", followed by perhaps his most famous piece "Mi Cyaan Believe It" and "Roots".

In 1981, he performed in Barbados during CARIFESTA and was filmed by BBC Television performing "Mi Cyaan Believe It" for the documentary From Brixton To Barbados.

In 1982, Smith took London by storm with performances at the Campden Centre for "International Book Fair of Radical Blacks and Third World books". And also at Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton for "Creation for Liberation".

While in Britain, together with Oku Onoura, Michael Smith also did a successful poetry tour and recorded the Mi Cyaan Believe It album for Island Records.

Linton Kwesi Johnson recalled how the circumstances of Smith's death was shrouded in controversy…

As far as I understand the facts, Mikey had attended a political meeting in Stony Hill where the ruling JLP Minister of Education was speaking and [he] had heckled her. The following day, he was confronted by three [persons believed to be] party activists, an argument ensued, stones were thrown and Mikey died from a blow to his head."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RFv7WqpcQQ&feature=related

Me seh me cyaan believe itme seh me cyaan believe it

Room dem a rentme apply widdinbut as me go eencockroch rat an scorpionalso come een

Waan goodnose haffi runbut me naw go siddung pon high wallike Humpty Dumptyme a face me reality

One little bwoy come blow im hornan me look pon im wid scornan me realize how me five bwoy-picniwas a victim of de trickdem call partisan politricks

an me ban me bellyan me bawlan me ban me bellyan me bawlLawdme cyaan believe itme seh me cyaan believe it

Me daughter bwoy-frien name Sailoran im pass through de port like a shipmore gran-picni fi feedan de whole a we in needwhat a night what a plightan we cyaan get a biteme life is a stiff fightan me cyaan believe itme seh me cyaan believe it

Sittin on de corner wid me frientalkin bout tings an timeme hear one voice seh'Who dat?'Me seh 'A who dat?''A who a seh who datwhen me a seh who dat?'

When yuh teck a stockdem lick we dung flatteet start flyan big man start cryan seh me cyaan believe itan seh me cyaan believe it

De odder dayme a pass one yard pon de hillWhen me teck a stock me hear'Hey, bwoy!''Yes, mam?''Hey, bwoy!''Yes, mam!''Yuh clean up de dawg shit?''Yes, mam.'

An me cyaan believe itan seh me cyaan believe it

Doris a modder of fourget a wuk as a domesticBoss man move eenan bap si kaisico she pregnant againbap si caisico she pregnant againan me cyaan believe itme seh me cyaan believe it

Deh a yard de odder nightwhen me hear 'Fire!  Fire!''Fire, to plate claat!'Who dead?  You dead!Who dead?  Me dead!Who dead?  Harry dead!Who dead?  Eleven dead!WoeeeeeeeeOrange Street firedeh pon me headan me cyaan believe itme seh me cyaan believe it

Lawdme see some blackbudlivin inna one buildinbut no rent no payso dem cyaan stayLawdde oppress an de dispossesscyaan get no res

What nex? Teck a trip from Kingston

to JamaicaTeck twelve from a dozenan me see me mumma in heavenMadhouse!  Madhouse!

Me seh me cyaan believe itme seh me cyaan believe it

Yuh believe it?How yuh fi believe itwhen yuh laughan yuh blind yuh eye to it?

But me know yuh believe itLawwwwwwwwdme know yuh believe it

from It A Come, 1986  (13-14)

What is effective about this poem? Why do you think it’s had a big impact? What does it tell us about post-colonial

identity?

3][4] He worked for the Commonwealth Institute and the BBC in London. His awards include the Paul Hamlyn Award for Poetry in 1997 and the Cholmondeley Award in 2004. Agard was Poet-in-Residence at the National Maritime Museum in 2008. His poem Half Caste has been featured in the AQA English GCSE anthology since 2002, meaning that many students (aged 14 – 16) have studied his work for their GCSE English qualification. Agard now lives in Lewes, in East Sussex.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywy-Tthdg7w&feature=related

What do you think of his performance?

Agard on poetry archive: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarc

hive/singlePoet.do?poetId=14595

Me not no Oxford don me a simple immigrant from Clapham Common I didn’t graduate I immigrate   But listen Mr Oxford don I’m a man on de run and a man on de run is a dangerous one

  I ent have no gun I ent have no knife but mugging de Queen’s English is the story of my life   I dont need no axe to split/ up yu syntax I dont need no hammer to mash/ up yu grammar  

I warning you Mr Oxford don I’m a wanted man and a wanted man is a dangerous one   Dem accuse me of assault on de Oxford dictionary/ imagine a concise peaceful man like me/ dem want me serve time for inciting rhyme to riot but I rekking it quiet down here in Clapham Common

  I’m not a violent man Mr Oxford don I only armed wit mih human breath but human breath is a dangerous weapon   So mek dem send one big word after me I ent serving no jail sentence I slashing suffix in self defence I bashing future wit present tense and if necessary   I making de Queen’s English accessory/ to my offence     JOHN AGARD from Mangoes and Bullets, Serpent’s Tail, 1985

What is “threatening” about the poem? What is humorous? Who is “the Other” in the poem? How

does the poem explore ideas of “the Other”?

Has Agard given voice to the “subaltern”? Does the subaltern speak here?

What are the ironies and contradictions involved?

Linton Kwesi Johnson (aka LKJ) (born 24 August 1952, Chapelton, Jamaica) is a UK-based dub poet. He became the second living poet, and the only black poet, to be published in the Penguin Classics series.[1] His poetry involves the recitation of his own verse in Jamaican Patois over dub-reggae, usually written in collaboration with renowned British reggae producer/artist Dennis Bovell. His middle name 'Kwesi' is Ghanaian.

Johnson studied for a degree in sociology at Goldsmiths College in New Cross, London (graduating in 1973),[2] which currently holds his personal papers in its archives; in 2004 he became an Honorary Visiting Professor of Middlesex University in London. In 2005 he was awarded a silver Musgrave medal from the Institute of Jamaica for distinguished eminence in the field of poetry.[3]

While still at school he joined the British Black Panther Movement,[3] helped to organise a poetry workshop within the movement, and developed his work with Rasta Love, a group of poets and drummers.

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=14957

Di Great Insohreckshan: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarc

hive/singlePoem.do?poemId=14960

Johnson is the most political perhaps of all post-colonial poets?

What is his message? What does his work say about identity?

What do these poets share in their: Attitudes Use of poetic form Identities?

Lamming: the myth of English supremacy, predicated upon certain cultural assumptions that have subjugated colonial subjects…

Spivak – the impossibility of the subaltern “speaking”, making their views known from a position of equality; always the “Other”, the invisible one…

Said – the discourses of colonialism have filtered into every sphere: science, anthropology, art

The myth of supremacy: of a hierarchy of knowledge; a right way to do things;

Codification Literary canon; great works of art The supremacy of Western approaches to

subjects, eg scientific, materialistic, religious

The colonial subject is largely “silenced”, invisible, the “Other”,

The colonial subject is often turned into the “exotic”; eg Caribbean tourism

Or demonised, eg terrorists Or pitied, eg charity, Live Aid etc…

The effects of colonialism is far deeper than the seizure of land, of political power; colonialism has infected the very fabric of people’s identities, both the colonialiser and the colonialised.

Highly problematic studying it; Lamming; the solution is to write fiction that

liberates the subject Spivak; there can be no solution, the subaltern

can never speak; we can only suggest solutions Said; we have to use the language of the

colonial oppressors in order to explore its effects; the paradox of this…

Predominantly about social class rather than ethnicity

Avoid “essentialism”; there is no innate human nature

Social identity is “constructed” by culture, language, upbringing

Lamming; the supremacy of fiction as a mode of discourse

Said; there is no “overt” nefarious plot to subjugate; using Foucault

Spivak; a feminist approach

Make comparisons and contrasts between texts; show off your wider reading…

TASK: How could you do this?

Spivak: “Some of the most radical criticism coming out of the West today is the result of an interested desire to conserve the subject of the West, or the West as Subject.”

The concept of the individual is problematic Spivak; we do not have “essential selves”; we do not speak; discourses speak through us…

A subject-effect can be briefly plotted as follows: that which seems to operate as a subject may be part of an immense discontinuous network … of strands that may be termed politics, ideology, economics, history, sexuality, language, and so on. … Different knottings and configurations of these strands, determined by heterogeneous determinations which are themselves dependent upon myriad circumstances, produce the effect of an operating subject. Yet the continuist and homogenist deliberative consciousness symptomatically requires a continuous and homogeneous cause for this effect and thus posits a sovereign and determining subject.

(Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “In Other Worlds”)

The theory of pluralized ‘subject-effects’ gives an illusion of undermining subjective sovereignty while often providing a covered this subject of knowledge. Although the history of Europe as Subject is narrativized by the law, political economy, and the ideology of the West, this concealed Subject pretends it has ‘no geo-political determinations’. The much publicized critique of the sovereign subject thus inaugurates a Subject…”

According to Foucault and Deleuze…the oppressed, if given the chance…can speak and know their conditions…

Madness and Civilization Main article: Madness and Civilization The English edition of Madness and

Civilization is an abridged version of Folie et déraison: Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique, originally published in 1961. A full English translation titled The History of Madness has since been published by Routledge in 2006.[27] "Folie et deraison" originated as Foucault's doctoral dissertation;[28] this was Foucault's first major book, mostly written while he was the Director of the Maison de France in Sweden. It examines ideas, practices, institutions, art and literature relating to madness in Western history.[29]

Foucault begins his history in the Middle Ages, noting the social and physical exclusion of lepers.[29] He argues that with the gradual disappearance of leprosy, madness came to occupy this excluded position. The ship of fools in the 15th century is a literary version of one such exclusionary practice, namely that of sending mad people away in ships. In 17th century Europe, in a movement Foucault famously calls the "Great Confinement," "unreasonable" members of the population were institutionalised.[30] In the 18th century, madness came to be seen as the reverse of Reason, and, finally, in the 19th century as mental illness.

Foucault also argues that madness was silenced by Reason, losing its power to signify the limits of social order and to point to the truth. He examines the rise of scientific and "humanitarian" treatments of the insane, notably at the hands of Philippe Pinel and Samuel Tuke who he suggests started the conceptualization of madness as 'mental illness'. He claims that these new treatments were in fact no less controlling than previous methods. Pinel's treatment of the mad amounted to an extended aversion therapy, including such treatments as freezing showers and use of a straitjacket. In Foucault's view, this treatment amounted to repeated brutality until the pattern of judgment and punishment was internalized by the patient.

Elite: 1. Dominant foreign groups Elite: 2. Dominant indigenous groups on

all-India level. 3. Dominant indigenous groups at the

regional and local levels 4. The terms ‘people’ and ‘subaltern’

classes (are) used synonymous throughout. The social groups and elements included in this category represent the demographic difference between the total Indian population and all those whome we have described as ‘elite’.

“For the ‘true’ subaltern group, whose identity is its difference, there is no unrepresentable subaltern subject that can know and speak itself; the intellectual’s solution is no to abstain from representation. The problem is that the subject’s itinerary has not been traced so as to offern an object of seduction to the representing intellectual.

How can we trouch the consciousness of the people, even as we investigate their politics? With what voice-consciousness can the subaltern speak?

When we come to the concomitant question of the consciousness of the subaltern, the notion of what the work cannot say becomes important. In the semioses of the social text, elaborations of insurgency stand in the place of ‘the utterance’.

2. Discuss the significance of ‘place’ in Caribbean writing?

Outstanding Represents the overall achievement of the appropriate learning outcomes to an outstanding level. Deep understanding of a social and cultural studies knowledge base. Complex argumentation and evaluation. Deep understanding of methodological issues. Comparative. Self reflective.

Brainstorm; Order; LinkTASK: Have a go at a plan…

Small Island Realist narrative Character-based;

examines the journeys of the characters

England/Caribbean Feminist? Relying on

“coincidence” Builds to moments

of climax Race and ‘place’

are the main themes

Dragon Can’t Dance

Experiments with form and language

Character-based Rebellion and

national identity are key themes

A number of climatic moments

Patriarchal in tone?

SECTION B: English Literature Discuss the Victorian sense of

Englishness as it is conveyed in the writing of the period.

Why has ‘aristocracy’ been an important idea in the writing of the period?

Consider the treatment of ONE of the following in English writing:

History Trade and empire Urbanisation The ‘Oriental’

Fairytale quality: Unlikely co-incidences

Queenie Bligh – what does she represent? Changing England? Her escape from her confining parents Her restrictive relationship with Bernard Her liberating sexual experience with a black

man, Michael Roberts

Does this play up to stereotypes? Eg uptight, asexual Englishman, sexually magnetic, wayward Jamaican male.

Mrs Ryder and Michael Page 46, “But every sound made them hug up

closer. Every gesture drew them together. Until the shadow of their heads took the shape of a heart on the wall…”

Leads to the death of Mr Ryder The disgrace of Michael

Illegitimate: indeterminate background Ambitious: wants to become a good teacher Constructs a new identity for herself based on

colonial texts False vision of England Pretentious Devious: uses her knowledge of her friend,

Celia, to stop her marrying Gilbert… Puritanical? Learns and develops as a character

Hortense, page 86 “If a body in its beauty is the work of God, then

this hideous predicament between his legs was without doubt the work of the devil.”

Gilbert: “There, that is a promise from a gentleman. I will sleep on the floor. And tomorrow I will rise early, go to the ship and sail to the Mother Country for us both. Because, oh, boy, Miss Mucky Foot,’ he shook his head slowly back and forth, ‘England will need to be prepared for your arrival.’

Page 118, “An English soldier, a Tommy called Tommy Atkins. Skin as pale as sopa, hair slicked with oil and shinier than his boots. See him sitting in a pub sipping a glass of warming rum and rolling a cigarette from a tin. Ask him, ‘Tommy, tell me nah, where is Jamaica?’

And hear him reply, ‘Well, dunno. Africa, ain’t it?’

Page 131 ‘You’re British, you say?’ ‘British. Yes,’ I answered. ‘But not English?’ ‘No. I am from Jamaica but England is my

Mother Country.’… ‘No Britain is Jamaica’s Mother Country. But we

are all part of the Empire.’… ‘The British own the island of Jamaica…”

Page 155, “Rows of black Gis at the back. Rows of white Gis at the front.”

Page 158, “Defence skulls cracked like nutshells as panicked black men had nowhere to go but stagger towards the furious boots, fists and elbows of the white GIs.”

Page 247, “I felt his leg gently touch his foot. ‘We have a bird in Jamaica,’ he said, softly as a bedtime story. “A humming-bird – our national bird… A humming bird in London. I watched that bird like I see an old friend. It looked dowdier in this grey British light – no sun to sparkle it up…” And as his hand fluttered downward, his fingers delicately caressed my hair.”

Page 431, “Bernard. One day he’ll do something naughty and you’ll look at him and think ‘The little black bastard, because you’ll be angry. And he’ll see it in your eyes. You’ll be angry with him not only for that. But because the neighbours never invited you around. Because they whispered about you as you went by. Because they never though you were as good as them. Because they though you and your family were odd. And all because you had a coloured child.”

Page 432, Queenie “I just want him to be with people who’ll understand. Can’t you see? His own kind. But I’ll do it any way you want to. Any way. But you have to say you’ll take him,”

What is Levy saying about British and Jamaican identity in this novel?

What characters are most profoundly affected by the issue of race?

What is this novel saying about social class and race?

What does this novel tell us about the effects of Empire and colonialism?

What makes this a “post-colonial” novel?

The first phase of the novel develops around characters stylised as –

Queen Princess Priest Warrior How does this first phase work?

The first chapter follows a conversation between Miss Olive and Miss Caroline and their criticisms of Miss Cleothlida, a proud mulatto widow who owns a parlor store but runs it as “if she were doing a favour to the Hill, rather than carrying on a business from which she intend[s] to profit”

Aldrick is very concerned that Sylvia, 17, sexy and dangerous, has the ability to “capture him in passion but to enslave him in caring, to bring into his world those ideas of love and home and children that he [has] spent his whole life avoiding”

Aldrick is in his small room working on his dragon costume, which he recreates every year for Carnival. While at work, thoughts of Sylvia keep coming to his head, when all of a sudden she appears at his doorstep.

TEMPTATION…

Fisheye becomes the center of the Calvary Hill steelband, and as their leader, he attempts to unite several bands so that instead of fighting one another, they can unite and “fight the people who are keeping down black people…the government”

Paraig – the Indian outcast In an effort to become noticed by others

on the Hill, Pariag buys a bicycle a week before Carnival, a very exciting time for people on the Hill. Pariag’s new acquisition gets him the name “Crazy Indian” and makes people in the neighborhood nervous about his ambitions.

“No, this ain’t no joke. This is warriors going to battle. This is the guts of the people, their blood” (123). Aldrick becomes the dragon of Port of Spain for two full days. He feels joy when he sees terror in people’s faces after gazing at him: “he liked it when they saw him coming and gathering up their children and ran”

Aldrick wakse and sees the “pathetic and ridiculous looking shacks planted in this brown dirt and stone, this was his home”.

Paraig’s uncle criticising his decision to live in the city. “Is so you want to live, among Creole people, like cat and dog, and forget your family. You have family boy. Next thing you know, you leave your wife – who you didn’t bring to see me"

Miss Cleothilda becomes giving and inquisitive around the yard and shows off the belief that “all o’ we is one” when Dolly becomes pregnant and she leads her baby shower

Aldrick, Fisheye and a few other young men have begun assembling at the corner more and more, not in the same company, but occupying the same space. They are men that no longer partake in carnival, especially since Johnson and Fullers began sponsoring their steelband. For them, the true renegade spirit of masking as timeless warriors of generations past has become overrun by modern forces like business and tourism.

They go to Woodford Square, the political centre of Port of Spain, where speeches and rallies are always held. Over the megaphone they proclaimed “This is the People’s Liberation Army” 40. At one point Aldrick takes the microphone and says: “make no peace with slavery…make no peace with shanty towns, dog shit, piss. We have to rise up as people. People”.

Argumentation: explore different viewpoints; argument and counter-argument

TASK: Write TWO or THREE arguments and counter-arguments about Small Island/Dragon Can’t Dance…

Evaluation; make informed judgements, based on evidence, about the effectiveness of the books

TASK: evaluate the effectiveness of chosen text…

Argument Small Island

reveals both England and the Caribbean to be racist places

Small Island reveals women to be subjugated by their environment

Counter-argument

Queenie is not prejudiced in the way many English people are

Women triumph over their environments??

Applying theories…

Reflect upon what you have learned, develop a personal response…

Please give some feedback on this session and anything else you want to say…