Enlarge Image
To embed a link to this book on your own website, please copy the script below.
Canticles II continues George Elliott Clarke's epic exploration of the Black/African intellectual presence in the Occident. In Canticles I (MMXVI) and (MMXVII), Clarke presents dramatic monologues in which historical personages and invented characters address 2000 years of imperialism ... Read more
Canticles II continues George Elliott Clarke's epic exploration of the Black/African intellectual presence in the Occident. In Canticles I (MMXVI) and (MMXVII), Clarke presents dramatic monologues in which historical personages and invented characters address 2000 years of imperialism and 500 years of slavery, some in support and others in opposition. In Canticles II, Clarke revises influential scriptures, principally Judeo-Christian, to offer alternative takes and tangents on their narratives and aphorisms, their histories and prophecies, reflecting an Afrocentric accent. Canticles II (MMXIX) shadows selected, Hebraic texts to draft a God who is particularly headstrong and peoples who tend to be wrong-headed. Any suspected blasphemy herein is, however, merely Poetry in disguise.
Acclaimed for his narrative lyric suites (Whylah Falls and Execution Poems), his lyric “colouring books” (Blue, Black, Red, and Gold), his selected poems (Blues and Bliss), his opera libretti and plays (Beatrice Chancy and Trudeau: Long March, Shining Path), George Elliott Clarke now presents us with his epic-in-progress, Canticles, a work that views History as a web of imperialism, enslavement, and insurrection. A native Africadian, Canada’s 7th Parliamentary Poet Laureate ranges the atlas and ransacks the library to ink lines unflinching before Atrocity and unquiet before Oppression.
Sign Up or Sign In to add your review or comment.
Throughout 2020, All Lit Up-er Tan Light is participating in BookRiot's Read Harder Challenge—a reading task designed to expand readerly boundaries—and doing so with an indie twist. Each entry in this series will highlight one or two completed challenges along with ... Read more
We'll send you bi-monthly updates to keep you in the loop on the best of our blog, special campaigns and offers, AND news on the latest in literary fiction, nonfiction and poetry from indie publishers across Canada.
We'll send you bi-monthly updates to keep you in the loop on the best of our blog, special campaigns and offers, AND news on the latest in literary fiction, nonfiction and poetry from indie publishers across Canada.
Copyright © 2022 All Lit Up. All Rights Reserved.
All Lit Up is produced by the Literary Press Group and LitDistCo. LPG and LitDistCo acknowledge the financial support of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council.
All views expressed by bloggers and contributors to the All Lit Up blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of All Lit Up or the Literary Press Group.
All Lit Up acknowledges we are hosted on the lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat. We also recognize the enduring presence of all First Nations, Métis and the Inuit people, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to meet and work on this territory.
