Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels
アミスタッド反乱を題材にした詩的な長編で、囚われた人々の声を複数の形式で立ち上げる。
作品情報
反乱の物語が、複数の声で重層的に語られる。
1839年のアミスタッド号反乱とその後を、詩、独白、書簡的な断片でたどる実験的な長編詩。
レビュー要約
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詩と歴史叙述を束ねる野心が評価され、アミスタッドの物語を一冊の作品として強く再構成していると見られている。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- Knopf
- 発売日
- 2011-01-25
- ページ数
- 272ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 16 x 2.92 x 23.88 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780307267641
- ISBN-10
- 9780307267641
- 価格
- 11748 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 洋書/History/Americas/United States/19th Century
Acclaimed poet Kevin Young gathers here a chorus of voices that tells the story of the Africans who mutinied onboard the slave ship Amistad . Written over twenty years, this poetic epic—part libretto, part captivity epistle—makes the past present, and even its sorrows sing. In “Buzzard,” the opening section, we hear from the African interpreter for the rebels, mostly from Sierra Leone, who were captured on their winding attempt to sail home and were jailed in New Haven. In “Correspondance,” we encounter the remarkable letters to John Quincy Adams and others that the captives write from jail, where abolitionists taught them English while converting them to Christianity. In lines profound and pointed, the men demand their freedom in their newfound tongue: “All we want is make us free.” The book culminates in “Witness,” a libretto chanted by Cinque, the rebel leader, who yearns for his family and freedom while eloquently evoking the Amistads’ conversion and life in “Merica.” As Young conjures this array of history and music, interweaving the liberation cry of Negro spirituals and the indoctrinating wordplay of American primers, he delivers his signature songlike immediacy at the service of a tremendous epic built on the ironies, violence, and virtues of American history. Vivid and true, Ardency is a powerful meditation on who we’ve been and who we are.
Kevin Young is the author of six previous collections of poetry and editor of five others. Jelly Roll was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and won the Paterson Poetry Prize; For the Confederate Dead won the 2007 Quill Award for poetry. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a United States Artists James Baldwin Fellowship, Young is currently the Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing and English and curator of Literary Collections and the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library at Emory University in Atlanta.
レビュー
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I am a huge fan of Kevin Young, and what I like best about his work is his deft is his fresh approach to each subject. He has a distinct voices in his poetry, yes, but his approach to subject matter changes a great deal. His work can be, in turns, infused by the blues, by the news, by lyrics, by words scrawled on paintings, by snippets from interviews, by everyday vernacular, by cookbooks, by family, by friends, and even by strangers who say interesting things and then disappear into the ether. Even so, I was unprepared for "Ardency," Young's latest book, which explores true American story of the Amistad (a slave ship which experienced mutiny led by the enslaved Africians, who were later brought to trial in the US). Young was studying and writing about this story long before Steven Spielberg's movie by the same name, and the collection which has been nutured over this long period of time is a triumph. Please know that you do not need an intimate knowledge of the Amistad to enjoy the book. Young begins the collection with a summary of events, and then explains how this book is broken down into three parts: "Buzzard" in the voice of James Covey, the Africian interpreteter for the imprisoned Africans; "Correspondence," which consists of letters from speeches from jail; and "Witness," a `libretto spoken/sung' by the leader of the Amistad rebellion which takes up the majority of the book. There is a tendency with historical writers to (sometimes unconsciously) infused their writing with foreshadowing, with a sense of knowledge of what's to come. What's so interesting about Young's choice is that he presents the poems almost in "real time," as if events are really unfolding, with know idea of how things are going to work out. It makes from a compelling and sometimes tense read, and makes the heartbreak and frustration feel fresh, authentic. And being familiar with Young's work, I know that he is experimenting quite a bit with his approach here, keeping the style and tone close to the period. And the Correspondence section is eye-opening, showing the poetry of every day language, how subtle choices can vibrate with intent if shown in the right light. And then the last section, "Witness," is just stagger in its rawness, its passion. It reprises the story we've heard in the last two sections, but this time with rush of blood, with an unflinching pair of human eyes. And I would be remiss if I didn't say there is some really lovely work here. For instance, in one of my favorite poems, "Maroon," (which explores Covey hatred for the abused Cabin boy who testified in favor of his captors, before disappearing) Young writes, "No body / watched you unhook yourself, sail quietly off. How / I envy the manner you turned up missing, a tooth / darkening, then fallen away. How our tongues / change, exposed, explore that space you've made." I could really go on and on. Needless to say, I highly recommend this book, for poetry fans and history buffs alike. It startles, it shimmers and it resurrect. It will stick with you for a long time.