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African-Americans are often perceived as a homogeneous or cohesive body within the social and rac... more African-Americans are often perceived as a homogeneous or cohesive body within the social and racial spectrum in the United States. They are often lampooned together when issues of race, segregation, civil rights, and affirmative action are mentioned as if Negroes or blacks were affected by the above issues in the same manner or degree. This paper argues that African-Americans have always been divided and fragmented. Their cultural history has been marred by disputes caused by intra as well as inter-racial differences. Ideological, class, and attitude factors seem to take African-American divisions beyond the usual din of black-white antagonism. The markers of Negro or black racial identity and its attendant factors are every conceivable hueand matters of ideology and attitude as much as pigmentation. The Harlem Renaissance and its “New Negro” project divided more than it united the black literati in the 1920s and 1930s. It can be seen as the seedbed for later inter-racial contestat...
Abstract: The present paper looks at translated signs – ads in malls or in shops and selling stan... more Abstract: The present paper looks at translated signs – ads in malls or in shops and selling stands, in construction sites, in roads and speedways… – from a sociocultural perspective. It argues as it downplays the humorous aspects of these translated signs that translation remains above all an act of communication between social and cultural groups. The translated signs examined in the present paper reveal the effects of displacement, separation, and alienation. They also validate the view that sociocultural approaches to translation reveal more about the movement of individuals and groups of individuals (subjects) than about the movement of texts (sources and target languages or objects). Saudi Arabia hosts, like many Gulf countries and perhaps even more, millions and millions of foreign workers. These workers – not counting academics and skilled clerks – are not totally bilingual. Their mastery of both English and Arabic is rudimentary and is essentially geared towards “getting by” or “managing” in complex and fragmented contexts shaped by migration and acculturation. Language – be it source or target language – is, as a consequence, unconsciously toned or subdued to the point that its linguistic norms, variations, and conventions no longer exist. Those who translated the signs we examined appear to be foreigners or migrants. Their socio-cultural context of displacement resulted in what looks like separation and lack of integration. In their new host countries, they remain the same or unchanged. Indeed, being caught in the dilemma of their migration, they neither fully integrated in nor remained fully separated from the language of their host country.
The cultural history of both the Arab world and the South of the United States from the 1920s til... more The cultural history of both the Arab world and the South of the United States from the 1920s till the late 1940s was a history of monumental changes. Some of these changes were traumatic and painful as they led both regions to perceive the disharmony that existed between their idealized states and their realized ones. At the heart of these changes was the issue of modernity-"Hadatha" in Arabic. The official end of the caliphate in the Arab world around 1924, the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928, the rise of independence movements coupled with the advent of Arab nationalism in the late 1940s, revived the cultural divide which existed between those who espoused modernity as a panacea for the region"s lack of progress and those who claimed that the region"s problems were basically caused by modernity itself. Almost one year after the end of the Caliphate in the Arab World, the South of the United States witnessed in 1925 the Scopes or Monkey Trial. The events surrounding the Scopes trial revealed the South"s problematic relations with modernity as well. The Crash of 1929 and its concomitant 1930s depression, the New Deal policies, the end of World War II, and the onset of the desegregation campaigns further exposed the South of the United States as America"s last citadel against modernity. This paper seeks to examine the problematics of modernity in the Arab World and in the South of the United States during specific periods of history characterized by monumental changes and transformations. In so doing, this paper seeks to establish possible common cultural and historical connections between the two regions without overlooking their various differences. This paper argues that the problematics of modernity in the Arab world and in the South of the United States were indicative of cultural and identity crises. Compared to the South of the United States which overcame its cultural and identity crises as it gradually integrated the rest of the American nation by the end of the World War II, the Arab world continued-and would continue-to have problematic relationships with modernity due to its on-going exposure to change and transformation.
The mid-1920s in the United States in general and in its Southern part in particular were years o... more The mid-1920s in the United States in general and in its Southern part in particular were years of fundamental changes. The opulence and plenty which characterized American society since the end of World War I started to recede as the Great Depression set in. The failure of American capitalism and its concomitant human tollsbankruptcies, high unemployment rates, dispossessions, suicides and other losses-led many to reject the very essence of American capitalism, its fundamentals, and its future viability. It was in the South of the United States that the rejection of capitalism was the most emphatic. Some authors like Dorothy Scarborough, Edith Sumner Kelly, Elizabeth Maddox Roberts, and Erskine Caldwell-to name but few-strove mainly to draw the attention of their readers to the plight of the South's rural and semi-urban poor: the sharecroppers and the cotton mill workers. Others, however, like devised "Agrarianism" as an alternative to capitalism in the South. "Agrarianism" was initially a social project which aimed at the reinstatement of the "southern pastoral ideal". Gradually, however, it metamorphosed into a critical method as most of its proponents turned "New Critics". The present paper looks at the Southern Agrarians as New Critics. It examines their shift from "Society to Textuality" and argues that their literary essentialism-or critical fascism one is tempted to say-damaged the critical reception of the men and women writers whose work contested the Agrarians project as it attempted, first, to reinstate the "South's pastoral ideal" and as it worked, second, towards articulating a theory of interpretation where literary texts were approached as self-sufficient verbal icons, with concrete realities of their own, and capable of transforming and of ordering human experiences.
The Bible and its tales were received and interpreted by Americans in general and African America... more The Bible and its tales were received and interpreted by Americans in general and African Americans in particular to understand and justify their respective journeys from Europe and Africa to the New World. Whites used the biblical tales to explain and justify their status as 'God's Chosen People' in the 'American Promised Land.' Conversely, blacks appropriated the biblical tales to give meaning to certain founding processes like the middle passage, slavery, emancipation, and… the Civil Rights Movement. The present paper does not concern itself with broader questions about the bible. It looks rather, through focusing on key processes in the racial and cultural history of the African Americans from slavery time to the Civil Movement, at how the bible, its tales, and myths were appropriated and used either to defend or debunk a world view. In doing so, this paper argues that the bible, its tales, and its myths have the meanings and effects they had because of particular readers and interpretive communities. Historical circumstances, cultural factors, intra and inter-racial political agendas determined and defined the ways whites and blacks used the biblical tales in order to assign meaning and significance. As a consequence, the bible, its tales, and its myths were/are not different from secular or worldly texts in their connection with social change and individual or group experiences.
Erskine Caldwell and Zora Neale Hurston are two southern authors who wrote about the American Sou... more Erskine Caldwell and Zora Neale Hurston are two southern authors who wrote about the American South and its people. They wrote mainly about life’s lower elements or about the poor and the downtrodden of both races in the region. The present paper examines how these life’s lower elements allowed Caldwell and Hurston to explore and develop a rich artistic tradition structured around celebrating what was deemed unworthy of literary representation and critical scrutiny. Caldwell and Hurston failed, it seemed, to satisfy the literary politics of the 1930s depressions years and of the Southern and the Harlem Renaissance. Such failure was caused in Caldwell’s case by a shift in critical perspectives which was marked by the end of the Proletarian or Marxist veneer in American Literature and by the emergence and establishment of New Criticism as a major critical strategy in literary study and analysis. As for Hurston’s failure it was caused, as this paper argues, by a shift of interest- her own shift of interest. She gradually distanced herself from the Harlem Renaissance or the New Negro Movement through focusing on intra-racial conflicts instead of on interracial ones. Both Caldwell and Hurston were accused, as a consequence, of betrayal and of selling out region and race. This paper argues that instead of betrayal and of selling out region and race, what Erskine Caldwell and Zora Neale Hurston actually did was claiming or celebrating the South and its people through refiguring and foregrounding what the Southern Renaissance and the Harlem or New Negro Movement sought to exclude and marginalize.
Conference Presentations by borni lafi
Le Mal: Valeur et Discours, 2013
This paper argues that with regards to the issues of evil, and demonization; to their constructio... more This paper argues that with regards to the issues of evil, and demonization; to their construction and dissemination abroad and domestically, the cultural and literary history of the United States appears unbroken. It can be read as a continuum where the present not only feeds on the past but also foreshadows the future. Using Erskine Caldwell's literary opus as a case study, I argue that the black historical, cultural, and literary treatment point to attitude or behavioral patterns rooted in othering, evil construction, and dissemination. These patterns were in Caldwell's South of the United States- where "keeping the Nigger in his place"- more than just derogatory aphorisms. The present paper points to the racial binary opposition whereby the elevation of whites has always rested on the lowering or denigration of non-whites.
African-Americans are often perceived as a homogeneous or cohesive body within the social and rac... more African-Americans are often perceived as a homogeneous or cohesive body within the social and racial spectrum in the United States. They are often lampooned together when issues of race, segregation, civil rights, and affirmative action are mentioned as if Negroes or blacks were affected by the above issues in the same manner or degree. This paper argues that African-Americans have always been divided and fragmented. Their cultural history has been marred by disputes caused by intra as well as inter-racial differences. Ideological, class, and attitude factors seem to take African-American divisions beyond the usual din of black-white antagonism. The markers of Negro or black racial identity and its attendant factors are every conceivable hueand matters of ideology and attitude as much as pigmentation. The Harlem Renaissance and its “New Negro” project divided more than it united the black literati in the 1920s and 1930s. It can be seen as the seedbed for later inter-racial contestat...
Abstract: The present paper looks at translated signs – ads in malls or in shops and selling stan... more Abstract: The present paper looks at translated signs – ads in malls or in shops and selling stands, in construction sites, in roads and speedways… – from a sociocultural perspective. It argues as it downplays the humorous aspects of these translated signs that translation remains above all an act of communication between social and cultural groups. The translated signs examined in the present paper reveal the effects of displacement, separation, and alienation. They also validate the view that sociocultural approaches to translation reveal more about the movement of individuals and groups of individuals (subjects) than about the movement of texts (sources and target languages or objects). Saudi Arabia hosts, like many Gulf countries and perhaps even more, millions and millions of foreign workers. These workers – not counting academics and skilled clerks – are not totally bilingual. Their mastery of both English and Arabic is rudimentary and is essentially geared towards “getting by” or “managing” in complex and fragmented contexts shaped by migration and acculturation. Language – be it source or target language – is, as a consequence, unconsciously toned or subdued to the point that its linguistic norms, variations, and conventions no longer exist. Those who translated the signs we examined appear to be foreigners or migrants. Their socio-cultural context of displacement resulted in what looks like separation and lack of integration. In their new host countries, they remain the same or unchanged. Indeed, being caught in the dilemma of their migration, they neither fully integrated in nor remained fully separated from the language of their host country.
The cultural history of both the Arab world and the South of the United States from the 1920s til... more The cultural history of both the Arab world and the South of the United States from the 1920s till the late 1940s was a history of monumental changes. Some of these changes were traumatic and painful as they led both regions to perceive the disharmony that existed between their idealized states and their realized ones. At the heart of these changes was the issue of modernity-"Hadatha" in Arabic. The official end of the caliphate in the Arab world around 1924, the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928, the rise of independence movements coupled with the advent of Arab nationalism in the late 1940s, revived the cultural divide which existed between those who espoused modernity as a panacea for the region"s lack of progress and those who claimed that the region"s problems were basically caused by modernity itself. Almost one year after the end of the Caliphate in the Arab World, the South of the United States witnessed in 1925 the Scopes or Monkey Trial. The events surrounding the Scopes trial revealed the South"s problematic relations with modernity as well. The Crash of 1929 and its concomitant 1930s depression, the New Deal policies, the end of World War II, and the onset of the desegregation campaigns further exposed the South of the United States as America"s last citadel against modernity. This paper seeks to examine the problematics of modernity in the Arab World and in the South of the United States during specific periods of history characterized by monumental changes and transformations. In so doing, this paper seeks to establish possible common cultural and historical connections between the two regions without overlooking their various differences. This paper argues that the problematics of modernity in the Arab world and in the South of the United States were indicative of cultural and identity crises. Compared to the South of the United States which overcame its cultural and identity crises as it gradually integrated the rest of the American nation by the end of the World War II, the Arab world continued-and would continue-to have problematic relationships with modernity due to its on-going exposure to change and transformation.
The mid-1920s in the United States in general and in its Southern part in particular were years o... more The mid-1920s in the United States in general and in its Southern part in particular were years of fundamental changes. The opulence and plenty which characterized American society since the end of World War I started to recede as the Great Depression set in. The failure of American capitalism and its concomitant human tollsbankruptcies, high unemployment rates, dispossessions, suicides and other losses-led many to reject the very essence of American capitalism, its fundamentals, and its future viability. It was in the South of the United States that the rejection of capitalism was the most emphatic. Some authors like Dorothy Scarborough, Edith Sumner Kelly, Elizabeth Maddox Roberts, and Erskine Caldwell-to name but few-strove mainly to draw the attention of their readers to the plight of the South's rural and semi-urban poor: the sharecroppers and the cotton mill workers. Others, however, like devised "Agrarianism" as an alternative to capitalism in the South. "Agrarianism" was initially a social project which aimed at the reinstatement of the "southern pastoral ideal". Gradually, however, it metamorphosed into a critical method as most of its proponents turned "New Critics". The present paper looks at the Southern Agrarians as New Critics. It examines their shift from "Society to Textuality" and argues that their literary essentialism-or critical fascism one is tempted to say-damaged the critical reception of the men and women writers whose work contested the Agrarians project as it attempted, first, to reinstate the "South's pastoral ideal" and as it worked, second, towards articulating a theory of interpretation where literary texts were approached as self-sufficient verbal icons, with concrete realities of their own, and capable of transforming and of ordering human experiences.
The Bible and its tales were received and interpreted by Americans in general and African America... more The Bible and its tales were received and interpreted by Americans in general and African Americans in particular to understand and justify their respective journeys from Europe and Africa to the New World. Whites used the biblical tales to explain and justify their status as 'God's Chosen People' in the 'American Promised Land.' Conversely, blacks appropriated the biblical tales to give meaning to certain founding processes like the middle passage, slavery, emancipation, and… the Civil Rights Movement. The present paper does not concern itself with broader questions about the bible. It looks rather, through focusing on key processes in the racial and cultural history of the African Americans from slavery time to the Civil Movement, at how the bible, its tales, and myths were appropriated and used either to defend or debunk a world view. In doing so, this paper argues that the bible, its tales, and its myths have the meanings and effects they had because of particular readers and interpretive communities. Historical circumstances, cultural factors, intra and inter-racial political agendas determined and defined the ways whites and blacks used the biblical tales in order to assign meaning and significance. As a consequence, the bible, its tales, and its myths were/are not different from secular or worldly texts in their connection with social change and individual or group experiences.
Erskine Caldwell and Zora Neale Hurston are two southern authors who wrote about the American Sou... more Erskine Caldwell and Zora Neale Hurston are two southern authors who wrote about the American South and its people. They wrote mainly about life’s lower elements or about the poor and the downtrodden of both races in the region. The present paper examines how these life’s lower elements allowed Caldwell and Hurston to explore and develop a rich artistic tradition structured around celebrating what was deemed unworthy of literary representation and critical scrutiny. Caldwell and Hurston failed, it seemed, to satisfy the literary politics of the 1930s depressions years and of the Southern and the Harlem Renaissance. Such failure was caused in Caldwell’s case by a shift in critical perspectives which was marked by the end of the Proletarian or Marxist veneer in American Literature and by the emergence and establishment of New Criticism as a major critical strategy in literary study and analysis. As for Hurston’s failure it was caused, as this paper argues, by a shift of interest- her own shift of interest. She gradually distanced herself from the Harlem Renaissance or the New Negro Movement through focusing on intra-racial conflicts instead of on interracial ones. Both Caldwell and Hurston were accused, as a consequence, of betrayal and of selling out region and race. This paper argues that instead of betrayal and of selling out region and race, what Erskine Caldwell and Zora Neale Hurston actually did was claiming or celebrating the South and its people through refiguring and foregrounding what the Southern Renaissance and the Harlem or New Negro Movement sought to exclude and marginalize.
Le Mal: Valeur et Discours, 2013
This paper argues that with regards to the issues of evil, and demonization; to their constructio... more This paper argues that with regards to the issues of evil, and demonization; to their construction and dissemination abroad and domestically, the cultural and literary history of the United States appears unbroken. It can be read as a continuum where the present not only feeds on the past but also foreshadows the future. Using Erskine Caldwell's literary opus as a case study, I argue that the black historical, cultural, and literary treatment point to attitude or behavioral patterns rooted in othering, evil construction, and dissemination. These patterns were in Caldwell's South of the United States- where "keeping the Nigger in his place"- more than just derogatory aphorisms. The present paper points to the racial binary opposition whereby the elevation of whites has always rested on the lowering or denigration of non-whites.