The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism

A pathbreaking work of scholarship that will reshape our understanding of the Harlem Renaissance, The Practice of Diaspora revisits black transnational culture in the 1920s and 1930s, paying particular attention to links between intellectuals in New York and their Francophone counterparts in Paris. Brent Edwards suggests that diaspora is less a historical condition than a set of practices: the claims, correspondences, and collaborations through which black intellectuals pursue a variety of international alliances. 
 Edwards elucidates the workings of diaspora by tracking the wealth of black transnational print culture between the world wars, exploring the connections and exchanges among New York–based publications (such as Opportunity, The Negro World, and The Crisis) and newspapers in Paris (such as Les Continents, La Voix des Nègres, and L'Etudiant noir). In reading a remarkably diverse archive--the works of writers and editors from Langston Hughes, René Maran, and Claude McKay to Paulette Nardal, Alain Locke, W. E. B. Du Bois, George Padmore, and Tiemoko Garan Kouyaté--The Practice of Diaspora takes account of the highly divergent ways of imagining race beyond the barriers of nation and language. In doing so, it reveals the importance of translation, arguing that the politics of diaspora are legible above all in efforts at negotiating difference among populations of African descent throughout the world.

Literature & Fiction

Edwards, Brent Hayes

History & Criticism

Harvard University Press

A pathbreaking work of scholarship that will reshape our understanding of the Harlem Renaissance, The Practice of Diaspora revisits black transnational culture in the 1920s and 1930s, paying particular attention to links between intellectuals in New York and their Francophone counterparts in Paris. Brent Edwards suggests that diaspora is less a historical condition than a set of practices: the claims, correspondences, and collaborations through which black intellectuals pursue a variety of international alliances.
Edwards elucidates the workings of diaspora by tracking the wealth of black transnational print culture between the world wars, exploring the connections and exchanges among New York–based publications (such as Opportunity, The Negro World, and The Crisis) and newspapers in Paris (such as Les Continents, La Voix des Nègres, and L'Etudiant noir). In reading a remarkably diverse archive--the works of writers and editors from Langston Hughes, René Maran, and Claude McKay to Paulette Nardal, Alain Locke, W. E. B. Du Bois, George Padmore, and Tiemoko Garan Kouyaté--The Practice of Diaspora takes account of the highly divergent ways of imagining race beyond the barriers of nation and language. In doing so, it reveals the importance of translation, arguing that the politics of diaspora are legible above all in efforts at negotiating difference among populations of African descent throughout the world.

In 1941 Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke copyrighted “Epistrophy,” one of the best-known compositions of the bebop era. The song’s title refers to a literary device―the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses―that is echoed in the construction of the melody. Written two decades later, Amiri Baraka’s poem “Epistrophe” alludes slyly to Monk’s tune. Whether it is composers finding formal inspiration in verse or a poet invoking the sound of music, hearing across media is the source of innovation in black art.
Epistrophies explores this fertile interface through case studies in jazz literature―both writings informed by music and the surprisingly large body of writing by jazz musicians themselves. From James Weldon Johnson’s vernacular transcriptions to Sun Ra’s liner note poems, from Henry Threadgill’s arresting song titles to Nathaniel Mackey’s “Song of the Andoumboulou,” there is an unending back-and-forth between music that hovers at the edge of language and writing that strives for the propulsive energy and melodic contours of music.
At times this results in art that gravitates into multiple media. In Duke Ellington’s “social significance” suites, or in the striking parallels between Louis Armstrong’s inventiveness as a singer and trumpeter on the one hand and his idiosyncratic creativity as a letter writer and collagist on the other, one encounters an aesthetic that takes up both literature and music as components of a unique―and uniquely African American―sphere of art-making and performance.

Epistrophies: Jazz and the Literary Imagination

Since September 11, public discourse has often been framed in terms of absolutes: an age of innocence gives way to a present under siege, while the United States and its allies face off against the Axis of Evil. This special issue of Social Text aims to move beyond these binaries toward thoughtful analysis. The editors argue that the challenge for the Left is to develop an antiterrorism stance that acknowledges the legacy of U.S. trade and foreign policy as well as the diversity of the Muslim faith and the dangers presented by fundamentalism of all kinds.Examining the strengths and shortcomings of area, race, and gender studies in the search for understanding, this issue considers cross-cultural feminism as a means of combating terrorism; racial profiling of Muslims in the context of other racist logics; and the homogenization of dissent. The issue includes poetry, photographic work, and an article by Judith Butler on the discursive space surrounding the attacks of September 11. This impressive range of contributions questions the meaning and implications of the events of September 11 and their aftermath.Contributors. Muneer Ahmad, Meena Alexander, Lopamudra Basu, Judith Butler, Zillah Eisenstein, Stefano Harney, Randy Martin, Rosalind C. Morris, Fred Moten, Sandrine Nicoletta, Yigal Nizri, Jasbir K. Puar, Amit S. Rai, Ella Shohat, Ban Wang

911: A Public Emergency (Social Text 72) (Volume 20)

History

Moten, Fred

Mitchell, Timothy

Shohat, Ella

Martin, Randy

Harney, Stefano

Americas

Duke University Press Books

For the first time in history, over 50 percent of human beings live in cities. Perhaps more surprising is that cities in the developed world have been eclipsed in size and growth by the megacities of the underdeveloped world—the “global South.” As primary sites for human consumption of natural resources and for pollution of the environment, these global cities will witness the twenty-first-century crises—ecological, political, and social—when they first become full-blown. Global Cities of the South examines these portending disasters unfolding in the megacities of the global South. This special issue challenges postcolonial theorists to engage with urban studies and challenges urban analysts to turn their focus to the postcolonial societies where these cities have developed. Gathering well-known scholars in postcolonial theory and urban studies, the collection opens an interdisciplinary exchange through a series of case studies focused on cities in Africa and Asia. One essay argues that the world’s urban spaces are key to the continuance of inequity under capitalist globalization (exemplified by rapidly expanding urban slums), as well as to any possible resistance to that inequity. Another article considers the history and politics of Harlem from the perspective of a well-known academic, activist, and postcolonial theorist whose work here is interwoven with the photographic art of Alice Attie. A third reflects on the politics of representation of Hindu and Muslim populations in Mumbai, evaluating popular media including film and the cosmopolitan fiction of Salman Rushdie.Contributors. Alice Attie, Mike Davis, Ashley Dawson, Brent Hayes Edwards, Brian Larkin, Rossana Reguillo, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Rashmi Varma, Victor Vich

Global Cities of the South (Volume 22) (Special Issue of Social Text)

Dawson, Ashley

World

This issue marks the thirtieth anniversary of Social Text and celebrates the journal’s legacy. Offering a history of the journal since its inception in 1979, this issue explores the elements that have made Social Text what it is today: the intellectual impulses that first brought the editorial collective of scholars, artists, and activists together; the collective’s special commitment to collaborative journal editing; and the unique path the journal has taken to arrive at the distinctive place it now occupies in new left critical thought. 
Featuring new interviews with Social Text’s founders and former editors—including Stanley Aronowitz, John Brenkman, Fredric Jameson, Randy Martin, Toby Miller, Bruce Robbins, Andrew Ross, Sohnya Sayres, and Anders Stephanson—the issue reflects on the journal’s legacy as a radical publication that has bridged politics and the academy and has made critical interventions in both arenas. Several contributors revisit the first issue of the journal and describe its lasting impact. Others examine the politics of production at Social Text and detail the hands-on process of putting the journal together. Notably, the issue also features thirty essays by members of the current editorial collective, on key topics that have been crucial to the journal. Ranging from aesthetics to war, and including empire, mass culture, revolution, science, and theory, these essays bring to life the cultural history of the journal and demonstrate how Social Text has shaped the way that these terms are conceptualized and used today.
Contributors. The forty-four contributors include the current members of the Social Text collective and a number of former members. For a complete list of the collective, visit socialtextonline.org.

Collective History: Thirty Years of Social Text (Volume 27)

McCarthy, Anna

Historical Study & Educational Resources

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Edwards, Brent Hayes. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Edwards, Brent Hayes

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Edwards, Brent Hayes. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism

The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism

Epistrophies: Jazz and the Literary Imagination

911: A Public Emergency (Social Text 72) (Volume 20)

Global Cities of the South (Volume 22) (Special Issue of Social Text)

Collective History: Thirty Years of Social Text (Volume 27)