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Toussaint Louverture
The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History; A Play in Three Acts
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Edited by:
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2013
About this book
A new critical edition of Toussaint Louverture, the play written by the Trinidadian intellectual and activist C. L. R. James in 1934, performed at London's Westminster Theatre in 1936, and then presumed lost until its rediscovery in 2005.
Author / Editor information
C. L. R. James (1901–89) was a Trinidadian historian, novelist, activist, and cultural and political critic. He wrote many books, including a seminal cultural study of cricket, Beyond a Boundary, which is also published by Duke University Press.
Christian Høgsbjerg is a historian who lectures at Leeds Metropolitan University.
Reviews
“[T]horoughly researched and intelligently prepared. . . .Toussaint Louverture is easily one of the two or three most important publications of C.L.R. James’s work in decades – and the best-edited, by a very large margin.”
-- Scott McLemee Inside Higher Ed
“This present volume . . . contains the play itself among an array of fascinating accompanying texts. These include an enlightening introduction by Høgsbjerg, a series of notices and reviews of the performances, which featured the most renowned black actor of his generation, Paul Robeson, as the Haitian revolutionary leader, plus other writings by James, Robeson and George Padmore, which pitch the play within its vital contemporary context: all in all, a profoundly engaging, original and epochal document.”
-- Chris Searle Race & Class
(Starred Review) “This script is from a bygone age; its value lies not only in its importance as a document of theater history but also as a crucial addition to the canon of works about the Caribbean. This work would be difficult to stage these days (it boasts an especially large cast), but it should not be ignored by groups that can marshal the resources. Historians of the Caribbean will find it essential.”
-- Larry Schwartz Library Journal
“Highly recommended.”
-- A.J. Guillaume Jr Choice
“Why should we pay attention to this long-lost and largely forgotten play? We should do so because it is among the first efforts of one of history’s great anti-colonial voices, wrestling with the distinctive aesthetic quandaries of form and performance, to show that freedom from imperialism is just a phrase if it does not entail direct democracy and universal rights. James was nothing if not ambitious.”
-- Robert Spencer Journal of Postcolonial Writing
“We all owe much to the expert salvage operation Christian Høgsbjerg has performed here. As long as the world wilts with oppression, is awash with crisis, and punctuated by resistance this play, its subject matter, and now this book, will have to be read, watched and pondered on over and over again.”
-- Gaverne Bennett London Socialist Historians Group
"More than any other contemporary writer on James, Christian Høgsbjerg appreciates how provisional and incomplete our understanding of this intellectual agenda has actually been. . . . The publication of James’s foray into theatrical prose is not only a delightful literary event in its own right but provides a welcome opportunity to revisit the historical and intellectual context in which James produced his landmark work of comparative historical analysis, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo Revolution (1938). "
-- Kent Worcester New Politics
“[T]he many people interested in James, and the many admirers in particular of his The Black Jacobins, will welcome this first publication of his 1934 play. It includes Christian Hogsbjerg’s well researched introduction and annotations, and several other pieces related to the play which form the appendix to this volume.”
-- Bridget Brereton Trinidad Express
"It would be hard to overstate the importance of Christian Høgsbjerg’s new critical edition of C.L.R. James’s Toussaint Louverture.... Publication of Toussaint Louverture is such a resource for all readers. There could be no better work with which to launch the important new C.L.R. James Archives Series, edited by Robert A. Hill for Duke University Press."
-- Rachel Douglas Anthurium
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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CONTENTS
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Foreword by Laurent Dubois
vii -
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
xi -
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Introduction
1 -
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Editorial Note
41 -
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Author’s Note (1936)
45 - Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History
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The Complete Playscript (1934)
47 -
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Act II. Scene 1, from Toussaint Louverture (1936)
135 - The Production and Performance of Toussaint Louverture
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Notices
155 -
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The Programme (1936)
160 -
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Reviews
164 - Appendix
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“The Intelligence of the Negro”
189 -
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“A Century of Freedom”
199 -
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“Slavery Today: A Shocking Exposure”
206 -
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“I Want Negro Culture”
212 -
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“‘Civilising’ the ‘Blacks’: Why Britain Needs to Maintain Her African Possessions”
214 -
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Letter from George Padmore to Dr. Alain Locke
217 -
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[“The Maverick Club”]
218 -
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“A Unique Personality”
219 -
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“Paul Robeson”
221
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
December 31, 2012
eBook ISBN:
9780822395669
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
240
Other:
10 illustrations
This book is in the series
eBook ISBN:
9780822395669
Audience(s) for this book
General/trade;
