Chutneyed Poetics

Reading Diaspora and Sundar Popo's Chutney Lyrics as Indo-Caribbean Postcolonial Literature

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5789321
AutoresRajiv Mohabir (Auburn University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen15
Número1
Páginas4-4
Fecha de publicación2019-02-12
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnthurium A Caribbean Studies Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1547-7150 • E-ISSN: 1547-7150
EditorialUniversity of Miami (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.33596/anth.353
OpenAlexW2936770728
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas14

It is my intent for these new readings of Sundar Popo's song lyrics to not only challenge modern epistemic violence perpetrated against the deemed frivolity of Chutney (as a genre's) lyrics, but also to utilize the original texts to understand these songs as an essential postcolonial Indo-Caribbean literature. Since the archive of Caribbean literature includes predominantly English, Spanish, French, and various nation languages, I posit the inclusion of Caribbean Hindi as a neglected archive is worth exploring given its rich significations as literature. I engage chutney music, a form of popular music, as poetry to illustrate the construction of Indo-Caribbean identity through the linguistic and poetic features of its lyrics as a cultural production that are created by the syncretisms of the Caribbean. This paper is written in four sections: 1. A Chutneyed Diaspora, 2. Methods and Approach, 3. Chutney Translation and Analysis: Bends Towards Meaning and 4. Diaspora as Chutney. The first section provides a historical stage for the emergence of Chutney music, concentrating on an introduction to the trends of its study by contemporary ethnomusicologists. The second section introduces my own approach to the study of oral traditions as literature and my engagement with my subjective postcolonial positioning as an individual of Indo-Caribbean origin. The third section is a close reading, a deeper look into meaning conveyed by these earlier dismissed lyrics. It attempts to illustrate an ethos thriving in Sunder Popo's generation of cultural syncretism and linguistic identity. The last section endeavors to conclude this study by positing that Indian-ness itself, its tropes and culturalisms, becomes a type of Chutney by virtue of its syncretic nature. Moreover, it serves as an indication that these transformations of folk music are not cultural remnants, but rather a new expression of Indo-Caribbean identity

Diaspora · Lyrics · Poetics · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Socioeconomic Development in Asia · South Asian Cinema and Culture