|
Showing 1 - 2 of
2 matches in All Departments
The ten essays in The Crucible of Carolina explore the connections
between the language and culture of South Carolina's barrier
islands, West Africa, the Caribbean, and England. Decades before
any formal, scholarly interest in South Carolina barrier life,
outsiders had been commenting on and documenting the "African"
qualities of the region's black inhabitants. These qualities have
long been manifest in their language, religious practices, music,
and material culture. Although direct contact between South
Carolina and Africa continued until the Civil War, the era of
Caribbean contact was briefer and ended with the close of the
American colonial period. Throughout this volume, though, the
contributors look beyond the cultural motivations and political
appeal of strengthening the links between coastal Carolina and
Africa and examine the cost of a diminished recognition of this
important Caribbean influence. Not surprisingly, the influence of
the pioneering linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner is reflected in many of
these essays. The work presented in this volume, however, moves
beyond Turner in dealing with the discourse and stylistic aspects
of Gullah; in relating patters of Gullah to other Anglophone
creoles and to various processes of creolization; and in
questioning the usefulness of "retention," "survival," and
"continuity" as operational concepts in comparative research.
Within this context of furthering and challenging Turner's work in
the barrier islands, and in seeking a truer measure of both African
and Caribbean influences there, the contributors cover such topics
as names and naming, the language of religious rituals,
basket-making traditions, creole discourse patterns, and the
grammatical morphology of Gullah and related creole and pidgin
languages. Other contributors consider the substrate contributions
and African continuities to be found in New World language patterns
into new patterns adapted to the various situations in the New
World. Opening new and advancing previous areas of research, The
Crucible of Carolina also contributes to a further appreciation of
the richness and diversity of South Carolina's cultural heritage.
"When Roots Die" celebrates and preserves the venerable Gullah
culture of the sea islands of the South Carolina and Georgia coast.
Entering into communities long isolated from the world by a blazing
sun and salt marshes, Patricia Jones-Jackson captures the cadence
of the storyteller lost in the adventures of "Brer Rabbit," records
voices lifted in song or prayer, and describes folkways and beliefs
that have endured, through ocean voyage and human bondage, for more
than two hundred years.
|
|