Papers by Roberto Gaudioso
Euphrase Kezilahabi, outstanding Swahili writer, thinker and scholar who was born on 13 April, 19... more Euphrase Kezilahabi, outstanding Swahili writer, thinker and scholar who was born on 13 April, 1944, passed away on 9 January, 2020. In this obituary, Roberto Gaudioso pays homage to his path-breaking achievements in Swahili creative literature by highlighting his poetry which Gaudioso has studied in depth. He emphasizes that the late Kezilahabi’s contribution as an intellectual and a poet goes beyond limits of space and time, as is shown by generations of researchers and translators who have been working on him
Afrikanistik Aegyptologie Online, Dec 31, 2020
Kervan. International Journal of Afro-Asiatic Studies, 2019
This article stems from a field research carried out in Lubumbashi in September and October 2018,... more This article stems from a field research carried out in Lubumbashi in September and October 2018, as part of a national project on contemporary RDC, with a focus on the swahilophone creative expressions. It aims at outlining the poetics of the sing-songwriter Sando Marteau as it springs from his texts in Swahili, within the linguistic and cultural context of Lubumbashi.
In this paper, I propose translation as a main tool for a sensualistic and hermeneutical approach... more In this paper, I propose translation as a main tool for a sensualistic and hermeneutical approach to texts. In agreement with the writer and thinker Euphrase Kezilahabi, who claims that the text has to be considered as a living event, I propose to look at a text not as an object but as a living body. I ague that this approach reduces the distance between the body of the text and that of the reader. Perception can thus be used as a means to know and critique a literary text. I present a multifocal sensualistic analysis based on an analogical idea of knowledge, taking translation as a tool to push the critic to focus on the text word for word (not excluding the paratext or the context). The translations discussed here are poems by Kezilahabi and a proposal for a Swahili translation of the poem L’infinito by the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi.
Kervan. International Journal of Afro-Asiatic Studies, 2019
The world of Swahili contemporary poetry, as remarked by M. M. Mulokozi and T. S. Y. Sengo (1995:... more The world of Swahili contemporary poetry, as remarked by M. M. Mulokozi and T. S. Y. Sengo (1995: 22), is amazingly broad, given the progressive diffusion of the Swahili language in the course of the last two centuries, from the East African coast to the continental regions of Eastern and Central Africa. Accordingly, authors of Swahili poetic texts can also be found in the “periphery” of the Swahilophone area, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where this language has become the medium of modern songs and written poetry in many areas, although the latter is hardly visible in a context where creative writing is predominantly expressed in French. In the present contribution, after an introduction on Swahili poetry in the DRC and on the linguistic complexity of the Swahilophone environment of Katanga, and particularly of its main city, Lubumbashi, we will present some (so far unpublished) poems by Patrick Mudekereza, art curator and director of the cultural centre WAZA, together...
Euphrase Kezilahabi, a Tanzanian poet, novelist and scholar, is an ontological and African interp... more Euphrase Kezilahabi, a Tanzanian poet, novelist and scholar, is an ontological and African interpreter of Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. He transfers and rewrites Western philosophy in an African way, transforming philosophical concepts into metaphors or oniric images. These elements emerge in his PhD thesis where he explicitly speaks about the importance of the concepts of Being in Heidegger and the concept of Time in Nietzsche. African Being for Kezilahabi is being a prisoner because of pride of ethnicity, pride of Africanness and ethnic morality. That imprisons African Being and makes African leaders profit from the manipulation of these elements. According to Kezilahabi, these elements tend to make Africans think in a Fascist way. One of the key features of Kezilahabi’s philosophy is liberation. And so it is a philosophy of freedom, with very different meanings, which is the subject of this article. Kezilahabi’s philosophy is concerned with liberation. He meditates on...
Swahili Forum, 2022
This article is a comparative study of the critiques of developments in Shona and Swahili poetry ... more This article is a comparative study of the critiques of developments in Shona and Swahili poetry that began in 1970s Tanzania and 1980s Zimbabwe, after the introduction of regular patterns in Shona poetry (late 1950s) and of free verse in Swahili literature (late 1960s). These verse forms became the object of heated debate about the nature of ‘tradition’ and of ‘colonial’ innovation among scholars, intellectuals and poets. These debates went beyond notions of stylistic canons; rather, they focused on identity, as closely connected with tradition and the need for decolonization. The problem recognized in this paper is that this criticism became prescriptive, implying the risk of limiting verbal-artistic expression in terms of style and content. This article shows a continuity between these different contexts in relation to critical opposition to stylistic innovation and freedom of (expressing) thought. By comparing the poetry and philosophy of the Tanzanian poet Euphrase Kezilahabi and Zimbabwean poet Chirikure Chirukure, this paper problematizes the terms of these debates and proposes an inductive and aesthetic approach to texts that avoids prescriptivism.
Afrikanistik Aegyptologie Online, Dec 31, 2020
[Italiano]:Questo volume e stato raccolto per esprimere un sentito tributo alla carriera per molt... more [Italiano]:Questo volume e stato raccolto per esprimere un sentito tributo alla carriera per molti versi pioneristica di Elena Bertoncini Zubkova, studiosa di lingua e letteratura swahili, critica, traduttrice e infaticabile docente in Italia e in diverse universita europee. Purtroppo, poco prima della pubblicazione, Elena e venuta a mancare; dedichiamo quindi i nostri lavori alla sua memoria. Questa raccolta non poteva che nascere presso l’Universita degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” dove, dopo una prima esperienza di docenza presso la Charles University di Praga, ha fondato l’insegnamento di Lingua e Letteratura Swahili nel 1968, insegnando fino al 2009. Durante gli anni di insegna-mento ha generosamente preparato a fine didattico ottimi materiali per gli studenti italiani, tuttora in uso, relativi alla lingua, ai dialetti e alla letteratura swahili classica e moderna. Queste opere, che coprono l’intero arco di studi triennali e magistrali, hanno permesso a generazioni di studenti (compresi alcuni attuali ricercatori) di apprendere la lingua e la letteratura swahili utilizzando la loro lingua madre e sulla base di una metodologia fondata sull’analisi di testi originali e non su regole prescrittive. Notevole anche il suo lavoro di raccolta di pubblicazioni, sia scientifiche sia creative, spesso difficilmente re-peribili. Queste, oltre ad arricchire la biblioteca dell’Universita degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, sono state da lei catalogate in bibliografie apparse in riviste e volumi, costituendo un prezioso strumento di consultazione. Nel corso di quarant’anni, inoltre, Elena Bertoncini Zubkova ha svolto assiduamente ricerche nell’ambito della lingua e letteratura swahili, producendo opere generali, saggi e numerosissimi articoli che sono diventati un riferimento imprescindibile per tutti gli studiosi in campo nazionale e internazionale. Si e distinta, anche, per le numerose traduzioni di opere letterarie (princi-palmente racconti e poesie), volte sia nella sua lingua madre, lo slovacco, sia nella sua lingua d’elezione, l’italiano, svolgendo in quest’ultimo caso un importante ruolo di divulgazione della letteratura swahili in Italia./ [English]:This volume was composed in order to give a heartfelt tribute to the, in many ways pioneering, career of Elena Bertoncini Zubkova, scholar of Swahili lan-guage and literature, critic, translator and untiring teacher, both in Italy and at various universities around Europe. Regretfully, shortly before the publication of the book, Elena passed away; we therefore dedicate our contributions to her memory. This work could not have been produced anywhere but the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, where, after initially working at the Charles University in Prague, Bertoncini Zubkova founded the teaching of Swahili Language and Literature in 1968 and taught until 2009. In the course of her years of teaching, Bertoncini Zubkova generously prepared fine quality didactic material, still in use today, on Swahili language, dialects and literature, both modern and classical, for her Italian students. These works, which cover the entire span of the three-year and Master’s degree courses, have permitted a generation of students, including some who are researchers at present, to study and learn Swahili language and literature by using their own language and through a methodology based on the analysis of original texts and not on prescriptive rules. Another noteworthy contribution by Bertoncini Zubkova is that of her work in collecting, often very difficult to find, creative and scientific publications. Besides enriching the library at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, these collections have been catalogued by Bertoncini Zubkova into bibliogra-phies which have appeared in journals and volumes and represent a priceless resource for consultation. What is more, over the course of forty years, Elena Bertoncini Zubkova has carried out assiduous research within the field of Swahili language and literature, producing general works, essays and numerous articles which have become an essential point of reference for all scholars of the field, be they in Italy or abroad. She has also distinguished herself through her numerous translations of literary works (principally novels and poetry), both into her native tongue, Slovak, and her adopted language, Italian, through which she has performed an important role in making Swahili literature available in Italy.
New Conversations in African Philosophy Asixoxe – Let’s Talk (Edited by Alena Rettová, Benedetta Lanfranchi and Miriam Pahl), 2022
This chapter outlines some aspects of the philosophy of the recently passed Swahili poet Euphrase... more This chapter outlines some aspects of the philosophy of the recently passed Swahili poet Euphrase Kezilahabi (Namagondo 13 April 1944 – Dar es Salaam 11 January 2020). It collects the result of my two fieldworks to Ukerewe (Kezilahabi’s birthplace) and my interview with him in Gaborone (2015). The elements collected are analysed also in comparison with previous researches on Kezilahabi’s thought and verbal art. These fieldworks allowed me to collect different Kerewe songs, in particular by Muganga Gholita, the songwriter mentioned in a Kezilahabi poem, and to directly ask the author about his thoughts. This was decisive in confirming my interpretation of Kezilahabi’s thought, which comes out from a close reading and analysis of Kezilhabi’s poems and novels. I start from two of Kezilahabi’s poems (1974): Fasihi (Literature) - a meta-poem on literature and also a declaration of his poetics, in which I individuate the calabash as metaphor of oral literature –and Namagondo (the birth village of Kezilahabi), in which the mention of the popular dancer, singer and songwriter Muganga Gholita is more than a nostalgic element, but a reference for Kezilahabi’s poetics. Therefore, I read Kezilahabi, with his reform of free-verse in Swahili poetry, as an approximation to the orality, in continuity with Muganga Gholita. This element is not a mere stylistic choice, but it belongs to Kezilahabi’s aesthetics and philosophical thought. His aesthetic reform of Swahili literature engages the question of tradition, both the Swahili written tradition and Kezilahabi’s home Kerewe oral literature, but the Western philosophical tradition as well. Therefore, I analyse Kezilahabi’s philosophy also in comparison with German philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. The second section is on epistemology and essentialism. For Kezilahabi, understanding is an African cognitive faculty based on experience, on the senses and on aesthetics (as philosophy of art), which is opposed to Western epistemology based on knowing. I try to criticise this aspect as cultural essentialism, which is also inconsistent in Kezilahabi’s thought and artistic praxis. In order to demonstrate that the philosophers whom Kezilahabi uses are not an exception in Western philosophy, as he argues, I show how Nietzsche himself reformed philosophy on the basis of his reading of the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi. These inner dynamics of Western philosophy show that Heidegger and Nietzsche are not isolated figures, but rather that one part of Western philosophy was used to challenge and reform another part. However, in the last part, I read Kezilahabi’s aesthetic project (which involves ontology and epistemology) as a possibility to overcome essentialism. In this sense, the idea of African being as “Poetic Man” is an aestheticization, like Nietzsche’s “Overhuman”, and according to Kezilahabi’s poetics, this aestheticization of humanity can be interpreted as human re-connection to understanding faculty toward human emancipation and liberation.
Journal of Eastern African Studies, 2021
This article focuses on the textual aesthetics of the Congolese-born (later Tanzanian naturalized... more This article focuses on the textual aesthetics of the Congolese-born (later Tanzanian naturalized) Swahili singer-songwriter Remmy Ongala. In the first part, I argue that a textual approach is also important for songs. The theoretical discussion is mainly based on the studies by Karin Barber (“Popular Arts in Africa.” African Studies Review 30, no. 3 (1987): 1–78, “African-Language Literature and Postcolonial Criticism.” Research in African Literatures 26, no. 4 (1995): 3–30, “Quotation in the Constitution of Yorùbá Oral Texts.” Research in African Literatures 30, no. 2 (1999): 17–41, The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), which offer a fundamental perspective on these issues. On this basis, I propose a more literary perspective, related to the ideas of the father of aesthetics Baumgarten (1714–1762), the American writer Susan Sontag (1933–2004) and the Swahili writer Euphrase Kezilahabi (1944–2020). Since Ongala belongs to different textual traditions, Congolese and Tanzanian, I use texts from these traditions for a comparative analysis of style and thought. On the Congolese side the comparison is based on elements of oral literature, like folk tale and song, both in relation to the proverb Kipendacho roho hula nyama bichi (A soul in love eats raw meat), while on the Tanzanian side the comparison is based on Swahili literature of that time.
Research in African Literatures, 2020
The aim of this paper is to make a contribution to the old but still vivid
discussion on free ver... more The aim of this paper is to make a contribution to the old but still vivid
discussion on free verse Swahili poems and to suggest a textual approach that avoids culturalism. This approach is based on the ideas of Euphrase Kezilahabi and Ebrahim Hussein, who accuse critics of placing too much emphasis on cultural aspects or context. Kezilahabi and Hussein suggest a more holistic approach based on the aesthetics of the text. The dispute over free verse started in the late 1960s and still continues not only in academic writings, but also in harsh comments made by poets who write in a “traditional way” or scholars that I have had occasion to hear at conferences or during my fieldwork in Dar es Salaam.
Annali Sezione Orientale 77, 2017
It is well known that, in contemporary studies, the cultural and post-colonial critique mainly fo... more It is well known that, in contemporary studies, the cultural and post-colonial critique mainly focuses on the context of art and literature. My paper highlights the importance of a new Werkimmanente Interpretation, which focuses on the text qua aesthetic process. Thus, in other words, the text will be considered as a living event, meaning an experience of senses and knowledge. The text should be the centre of different her-meneutic approaches which involve translation and comparison, reader's reception, theories of knowledge, immanent interpretation of the text and literary language. Translation is not only a product, but a process of comprehension (incorporation) and restitution (incarnation) of a text through the constitution of an analogue. This paper intends to propose a multi-systematic mode of poetry analysis, related especially to the poetics of the Swahili writer Euphrase Kezilahabi.
Materialism and secularism in Swahili literature: The case of Topan's Aliyeonja Pepo, 2020
Concepts like materialism and secular thought have formed the basis of literary works of some of ... more Concepts like materialism and secular thought have formed the basis of literary works of some of the most important authors of modern literature, such as Kezilahabi, Hussein, Mulokozi, and Topan. The value of such concepts has not always been admitted by critics: all these authors, in fact, have faced various difficulties related to their works, from open refusal (in Kezilahabi's case) to a reluctant acceptance that neglected their critical points (in Topan's and Hussein's cases). The aim of this paper is to show to what extent secularism, materialism, and laicism are fundamental to these writers by selecting one case study, that of Topan's comedy Aliyeonja Pepo, and exploring its critique of religion, both independently and in comparison with the other aforementioned authors. Recognizing the presence of these concepts, in fact, would allow for a deeper analysis of the internal structures of these texts and mark an advance in their critical studies.
AFRICA. Rivista semestrale di studi e ricerche, 2020
This article focuses on the question of free verse from an inductive point of view, moving from t... more This article focuses on the question of free verse from an inductive point of view, moving from the particular case of Kezilahabi’s texts (their structure and style) to the question of free verse in Swahili modern poetry and its terminology. Thus, the article overcomes the fixed division between traditionalist and reformist ideas, which has characterized Swahili critics ever since Kezilahabi published his first collection of poems, Kichomi (1974). Through the analysis of a few poems (mostly from Kichomi and Dhifa, 2008), the hybrid, new forms of Kezilahabi’s poetry, aspects of his poetics, and his place in the history of Swahili poetry are shown.
Kervan – International Journal of Afro-Asiatic Studies 23/2, 2019
The world of Swahili contemporary poetry, as remarked by M. M. Mulokozi and T. S. Y. Sengo (1995)... more The world of Swahili contemporary poetry, as remarked by M. M. Mulokozi and T. S. Y. Sengo (1995), is amazingly broad, given the progressive diffusion of the Swahili language in the course of the last two centuries, from the East African coast to the continental regions of Eastern and Central Africa. Accordingly, authors of Swahili poetic texts can also be found in the “periphery” of the Swahilophone area, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where this language has become the medium of modern songs and written poetry in many areas, although the latter is hardly visible in a context where creative writing is predominantly expressed in French. In the present contribution, after an introduction on Swahili poetry in the DRC and on the linguistic complexity of the Swahilophone environment of Katanga, and particularly of its main city, Lubumbashi, we will present some (so far unpublished) poems by Patrick Mudekereza, art curator and director of the cultural centre WAZA, together with a first analysis of his verses, whose poetics emerges from plurilingualism and corporality.
Kervan – International Journal of Afro-Asiatic Studies 24/2, 2020
In this article, I analyse some texts of the Congolese songwriter Remmy Ongala. I outline his bio... more In this article, I analyse some texts of the Congolese songwriter Remmy Ongala. I outline his biography and career from Kindu and Kisangani (Democratic Republic of Congo) to Songea and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). My analysis is focused on style of his texts: through a comparative approach between his textual traditions, I propose a reading of his poetic conception and its contextualization as verbal art, that means focussing on the aesthetics of text.
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Papers by Roberto Gaudioso
discussion on free verse Swahili poems and to suggest a textual approach that avoids culturalism. This approach is based on the ideas of Euphrase Kezilahabi and Ebrahim Hussein, who accuse critics of placing too much emphasis on cultural aspects or context. Kezilahabi and Hussein suggest a more holistic approach based on the aesthetics of the text. The dispute over free verse started in the late 1960s and still continues not only in academic writings, but also in harsh comments made by poets who write in a “traditional way” or scholars that I have had occasion to hear at conferences or during my fieldwork in Dar es Salaam.
discussion on free verse Swahili poems and to suggest a textual approach that avoids culturalism. This approach is based on the ideas of Euphrase Kezilahabi and Ebrahim Hussein, who accuse critics of placing too much emphasis on cultural aspects or context. Kezilahabi and Hussein suggest a more holistic approach based on the aesthetics of the text. The dispute over free verse started in the late 1960s and still continues not only in academic writings, but also in harsh comments made by poets who write in a “traditional way” or scholars that I have had occasion to hear at conferences or during my fieldwork in Dar es Salaam.
Minerba, Emiliano.2022. Coming back to text in literary analysis: A review of Roberto Gaudioso’s The Voice of the Text and its Body. The Continuous Reform of Euphrase Kezilahabi’s Poetics: " Gaudioso here distinguishes himself by investigating this question from a literary rather than a cultural perspective, and by doing so he emancipates Kezilahabi’s free verse from the perception of it as a Western influence that poses a threat to Swahili poetry. Instead, he demonstrates clearly that free verse is functional in Kezilahabi’s conception of poetry as an ‘event lived’ — that is the precise expression employed by Kezilahabi (34) — that is able to go beyond its language and also the cultural environment it is born in, without rejecting it or betraying it (35). [...] Gaudioso explains the role of induction in literature mainly through analogy, referring above all to the extensive monograph by Enzo Melandri (2004). Analogy is the basis of the two main tools that allow us to experience the text as a body: comparison and translation.[...] Here, Gaudioso devotes his analysis first to the sound of the poems in this collection which is very elaborate and rich in musicality. This contributes to invalidating the idea that free verse has no rules, and it shows the close connection of Kezilahabi’s poetry with orality.[...] In all these three chapters, Gaudioso’s original analysis provides us with much more than just a better knowledge of Kezilahabi’s poetry. First, in all of them, comparison with poets and authors from different cultures is widely employed: not only Hussein and Topan, but also Heidegger and Nietzsche as philosophers, the Austrian poets Ingeborg Bachmann and Rainer Maria Rilke, the Italians Leopardi, Pasolini and Montale, the Tanzanian singer Remmy Ongala, and, coming back to Italy, the songwriter Fabrizio De Andrè. All these comparisons provide us with really interesting results and challenge several axioms — not to say taboos — of literary studies in Africa: comparison with Western authors outside the frame of the colonial experience proves to us that literature and art are not cultural, but universal phenomena, that go beyond the boundaries of different cultures, to use Kezilahabi’s words. Moreover, placing Kezilahabi alongside songwriters such as Remmy Ongala and Fabrizio De Andrè is a stimulation to overcome other literary classifications, such as oral vs. written and élitist vs. popular. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23277408.2022.2027085?src=&journalCode=real20
Rosenberg, Aaron ESTUDIOS DE ASIA Y ÁFRICA, VOL. 57, NÚM. 1 (177), 2022, PP. 201-204: "La amplia y profundamente informada serie de análisis de Gaudioso pasa de un posicionamiento cuasi histórico del trabajo de Kezilahabi dentro de —y en desacuerdo con— varias tradiciones poéticas swahili y de África Oriental a una discusión sobre la manera en la que su poesía, constantemente reformulada, debe entenderse en el contexto de la expresión poética como performance somática. Si bien no siempre hay un vínculo directo y obvio entre los elementos contextuales o las obras literarias específicas citadas, Gaudioso siempre se cuida de explicitar el uso particular que hace de estas partes y es muy claro acerca de la naturaleza aparente o implícita de tales asociaciones [...] El verdadero valor de estas intervenciones tan exitosas es que, invariablemente, ayudan al lector a comprender las sutilezas y las fortalezas de las obras expresivas de Kezilahabi y la forma en la que su creatividad dialoga de modo sostenido con el pensamiento profundo de varias comunidades, y Gaudioso debe ser elogiado por su atención al detalle y la adecuada realización de su obra en cada caso, ya que no elude la lectura profunda de las obras y la reunificación de cada caso con su tema central." https://estudiosdeasiayafrica.colmex.mx/index.php/eaa/article/view/2751/2674
JALaLit welcomes original research articles, fieldwork material, and discussion notes. The journal is interested in scholarship that draws from a broad variety of theoretical approaches and methodologies.
African linguistics: data-driven research contributions related to any aspect of African languages. A special focus is given to description, documentation and analysis of undocumented and under-described languages.
African literatures: studies on modern and contemporary literatures in African languages (also in comparison to other literatures) with a special focus on texts (both in oral or written form).
http://www.serena.unina.it/index.php/jalalit/index
Mario Famularo: In questi versi di Gaudioso è possibile rinvenire una particolare tensione, volta a evidenziare la dissonanza stridente tra bello e buono, quasi a rovesciare l’adagio classico in un monito, un invito a precipitare lo sguardo e a cambiarne la prospettiva dal basso; la bellezza (e la sua apparenza) assume così fattezze più affini al terribile, a un pericoloso agente della rovina, mentre, per converso, la bontà si lascia intuire come operazione di accoglimento, di umile auscultazione dell’altro da sé e del mondo, in un progressivo allontanarsi dal sé.
https://www.laboratoripoesia.it/le-tue-preghiere-immerse-in-valle-di-nulla-roberto-lumuli-gaudioso/
Serena Talento: Se a prima vista le compresenze, così come, e soprattutto, il pluralismo linguistico della poesia di Gaudioso sembrano esercitare un effetto straniante sul lettore, un’esperienza più ravvicinata rivela quanto queste rappresentino un vertice dell’accoglienza. Antoine Berman (1985/2004: 286) riteneva che il fine etico della traduzione consiste nel ricevere l’estraneo come tale, e lasciare che si dischiuda a noi nella sua assoluta estraneità. Allo stesso modo la poesia di Gaudioso, con le sue lingue, le sue geografie, e i suoi echi, ci spinge verso quell’albergo della lontananza (Berman 1999), che include e amplifica, moltiplica l’io e i suoi mondi permettendoci di vederci per intero.
https://poetarumsilva.com/2021/03/23/serena-talento-roberto-lumuli-gaudioso-squitii/
Andrea Galgano: Squittii di Roberto Lumuli Gaudioso, pubblicata da Oèdipus nel 2020, è espressione di vitale ricerca. Sia per una sorta di sincretismo linguistico che innerva sia la letteratura in lingue africane scritte e orali (con particolare attenzione per lo swahili) sia la trama delle letterature italiane, spagnole e tedesche in una immersione di patchwork e magma finale.
https://poesiainverso.com/2021/06/24/roberto-gaudioso-squittii/
Melania Panico: Giungiamo poi alla terza parte ovvero alla sezione Transcorrere: transito, trasformazione, movimento. È il luogo in cui l’autore rifiuta ogni origine, ogni essenzialismo in favore di quella che chiameremo esperienza di commistione, terra come carne viva, canto senza fine. È certamente la sezione in cui l’elemento/corpo si fa più presente e chiaro: “lamento è una lama/ al mento/ il pianto in gola/ diviene sangue/ l’urlo d’agnello/ non diviene/ e il pianto si rapprende/ sul viso”. Il canto non si ferma mai e noi ne diventiamo parte, senza paura perché kisichobadilika kimekufa, ciò che non cambia è morto.
https://www.rivistaclandestino.com/squittii-di-roberto-gaudioso/
The focus of this special issue is on theories and methodologies of comparison based on case studies. We wish to collect as many visions as possible on comparison as a textually grounded approach; therefore, we invite contributions that engage with, and develop forward, any perspective, as far as it is centred on the text. Papers based on specific case studies are especially welcome.
We invite the contributors to explore these comparisons:
1.between texts from different African languages (both local and national languages);
2.between texts in an African language and texts in a non-African language;
3.between verbal art in more Swahili varieties, including the ones of DRC, etc.
Along these lines of comparative research, we encourage contributors to identify the textual aesthetics that shapes the reception and interpretation of the works under study. Comparative analysis around any genre of the verbal arts is welcome, whatever its medium, oral or written. The studies submitted must be, at least partially, focused upon Swahili textual and cultural universes, oral or written, in Viswahili (standard Swahili or any other variety of the language). We also warmly invite other comparatists, non-Swahili specialists, who can use translated texts, to participate in our special issue, because we strongly believe that perspectives “outside” Swahili studies can expand the hermeneutic possibilities of these works and connect Swahili experiences to other textual art traditions and practices.
Discursive Trajectories in Eastern African Expressive Cultures
Friday, February 11th, 1:30 pm (Mexico City/USA Central Standard Time)
Panel organizers:
Dr. Aaron Rosenberg ([email protected]), Dr. Roberto Gaudioso ([email protected])
This panel emphasizes the following topics:
1. The role of African languages in African cultural modernization
2. Language in African literature and performance 3. Language in African arts and media
In recognition of the diversity and intricacy of expressive cultures in Eastern African contexts this panel seeks to explore the crucial messages and contextual power of these works and their systems of deployment throughout all levels of discursive community within East African continental and diasporic spheres in the articulation of viable identities to carry African people through the complexities of their contemporary postcolonial circumstances. As a result of the constant interaction of members of these communities with multiple pasts, presents and future possibilities any static idea of their aspirations toward “modernity” in the conventional European humanistic mold are insufficient tools for shaping our understanding of Eastern African verbal and performative artistry.
In particular, the panel will confront the inconsistencies and shortcomings of the terms “modernity” and “modernization” when applied in Eastern African contexts. Due to the particularities of the experiences of Eastern African communities in the 19th and twentieth, and now into the twenty-first centuries, this panel proposes a different set of creative paradigms through which we can come to a better understanding of the ways in which Eastern African artists explore their relation to the world in historical and contemporary perspectives through verbal and performative works in a wide variety of media and genres.
The proceedings of the conference will be selectively collected in order to publish them in an edited volume in English (press to be determined) as well as Spanish (El Colegio de México).
The panel organizers invite proposals for 20 minute presentations in English, Spanish or Swahili to be carried out via zoom. These proposals will be accepted at the above email addresses in form of a formal proposal of between 200 and 250 words until the first of November, 2021.