Tale of Black Histories - (The Glissant Translation Project) by Andrew Daily & Emily Sahakian (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Édouard Glissant has emerged as one of the major figures of 20th-century postcolonial literature, and his novels, poetry, and essays have been widely translated and studied. Little has been written, however, about his cultural and educational activism which informed and shaped his theoretical work. This edition sheds light on this chapter of Glissant's career by translating and annotating the collaboratively composed and staged play, Histoire de Nègre, which he helped to write and perform while teaching at the Institute for Martinican Studies.

Featuring borrowed texts from postcolonial literature, primary historical documents, Creole songs, new ensemble-based scenes, and Glissant's original writing, Histoire de Nègre was created in 1970-1971 by a group of schoolteachers at the Institute and performed for thousands of working-class spectators throughout Martinique. The play tells a tale that crosses time and space to stage the histories of slavery, colonialism, and anti-black violence, and the people's resistance against these forces. Our edition presents the first English-language translation of Histoire de nègre as well as documenting its complex historical and literary references, performance history, and place in its intellectual, literary, and theatrical contexts.

Intellectually rich, formally innovative, yet long-neglected, Histoire de Nègre offers a privileged window into Glissant's theatrical and educational activism, which formed the basis of his influential theoretical work Caribbean Discourse. The play exemplifies Glissant's work as a theatre artist and educational activist, expanding our knowledge of his thought and legacy.

Review Quotes

'This lively translation of Histoire de nègre [Tale of Black Histories] smartly recognizes and celebrates Édouard Glissant's early cultural activism. The translators/editors, Emily Sahakian and Andrew Daily, assert convincingly that Glissant's commitment to a pedagogical theatre not only informs his later theorization of the Caribbean condition but also addresses oppression wherever it occurs. Histoire de nègre (1971) -- a collective assemblage born of Glissant's overarching educational project at his Institute for Martinican Studies -- revisits official French "History" by juxtaposing opposing texts. He thus creates a dialogue that exposes the horrors and hypocrisy of colonialism. As Sahakian and Daily tell us, the resulting "histories" demonstrate how colonial power twists the truth but also how anti-colonial artists uncoil it, bringing to consciousness that which has been veiled. In their wonderfully informative introduction and notes, Sahakian and Daily explain the stakes of doing this kind of theatre work in Martinique, as well as the potential for reprising and reframing Tale of Black Histories for contemporary Anglophone production (which, in fact, Sahakian has done with several groups of students). Those interested in translation will learn a great deal from examining how the French text, included in this volume, has been transformed for production in English. Scholars of Glissant will marvel at how his gang of theatrical mavericks engaged with popular audiences in impromptu and participatory gatherings.' Judith G. Miller, New York University

"Combined with the rich notes on the cultural references (cogently summarised and presented without ever being reductive) and the truly illuminating staging considerations, this edition of Tale of Black Histories will become a landmark in postcolonial studies, across many disciplines and languages, surely the key contribution of such edition in a domain dominated by English and Spanish. More important, it will inspire schools and universities worldwide to experiment with the play, following Glissant's wishes, and that of the IME team of artists, teachers, and students, reaching out to the new decolonial struggles and reflections currently taking place in world politics." Hugues Azérad, University of Cambridge

"With this dazzling volume, Daily and Sahakian have recovered a keystone in the tradition of revolutionary black drama. In an audacious experiment in popular theater, Glissant and his collaborators took performance "off the beaten path" in an effort to find Martinican audiences where they lived: in the marketplace, in the public square, on the playground. Tale of Black Histories is a sweeping pageant of collective consciousness, a multilingual chrestomathy of oppression and liberation -- an open template that invites us to take it up and adapt it to fit new versions of "the same story" even today." Brent Hayes Edwards, author of The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism