CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1    Rhythm and Transcultural Poetics

Rhythm and Transculture

Method

2    Rhythm and Reappropriation in God's Bits of Wood and The Suns of Independence

Language and the Language of Music

Rhythm and Reappropriation in the Novel

Instrumentaliture at Work

Rhythm and Transformation

Ordinary and Extraordinary Rhythms

3    Rhythm, Music, and Identity in L'appel des arènes and Ti Jean L'horizon

Rhythm, Music, Subjectivity, and the Novel

Rhythm and Identity in L'appel des arènes

Rhythm and Identity in Ti Jean L'horizon

Rethinking Rootedness

4    Music and Mourning in Crossing the Mangrove and Solibo Magnificent

Memory, Mourning, and Mosaic Identities

Rhythm, Music, and Identity as Process

The Sounds of Death and Mourning

Configuring Rhythmic and Musically Mediated Identities

Concluding Remarks

Works Cited

Index