Beating the Graves
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€17.99
A01=Tsitsi Ella Jaji
African Literature
African Poetry
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Tsitsi Ella Jaji
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=DCF
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
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eq_isMigrated=2
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Language_English
PA=Available
Poems
Poetry
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
Shona
Sillerman Prize
softlaunch
World Literature
Zimbabwe
Product details
- ISBN 9780803299603
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 Mar 2017
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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The poems in Tsitsi Ella Jaji’s Beating the Graves meditate on the meaning of living in diaspora, an experience increasingly common among contemporary Zimbabweans. Vivid evocations of the landscape of Zimbabwe filter critiques of contemporary political conditions and ecological challenges, veiled in the multiple meanings of poetic metaphor. Many poems explore the genre of praise poetry, which in Shona culture is a form of social currency for greeting elders and peers with a recitation of the characteristics of one’s clan. Others reflect on how diasporic life shapes family relations.
The praise songs in this volume pay particular homage to the powerful women and gender-queer ancestors of the poet’s lineage and thought. Honoring influences ranging from Caribbean literature to classical music and engaging metaphors from rural Zimbabwe to the post-steel economy of Youngstown, Ohio, Jaji articulates her own ars poetica. These words revel in the utter ordinariness of living globally, of writing in the presence of all the languages of the world, at home everywhere, and never at rest.
The praise songs in this volume pay particular homage to the powerful women and gender-queer ancestors of the poet’s lineage and thought. Honoring influences ranging from Caribbean literature to classical music and engaging metaphors from rural Zimbabwe to the post-steel economy of Youngstown, Ohio, Jaji articulates her own ars poetica. These words revel in the utter ordinariness of living globally, of writing in the presence of all the languages of the world, at home everywhere, and never at rest.
Tsitsi Ella Jaji is an associate professor of African and African American studies at Duke University. She is the author of Africa in Stereo: Modernism, Music, and Pan-African Solidarity.
