An Indolent and Blundering Art?: The Etching Revival and the Redefinition of Etching in England 1838-1892

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Based on three lectures distinguished Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe gave at Harvard University in 1998, this short but trenchant work does not pretend to be a full-fledged autobiography. Instead, Achebe makes forceful use of his personal experiences to examine the political nature of culture. Born in 1930, the son of a Christian convert, young Achebe received a privileged colonial education and "was entranced by the far-away and long-ago worlds of the stories [in English books like Treasure Island and Ivanhoe], so different from the stories of my home and childhood." Yet he and fellow university students indignantly rejected Anglo-Irishman Joyce Cary's highly praised novel Mister Johnson, which bore no resemblance to their knowledge of Nigerian life. This encounter "call[ed] into question my childhood assumption of the innocence of stories," Achebe comments, using scathing assessments of white Kenyan writer Elspeth Huxley and Indian/Caribbean expatriate V.S. Naipaul to remind us that all literature reflects its creators' beliefs and prejudices. Achebe is not an enemy of Western culture; he merely asserts Africans' right to their own perspective and their own art, as exemplified in works like his groundbreaking 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart. Though blunt, his argument is tempered by humor and a passionate belief in "the curative power of stories." --Wendy Smith

Book Description

More personally revealing than anything Achebe has written, Home and Exile-the great Nigerian novelist's first book in more than ten years-is a major statement on the importance of stories as real sources of power, especially for those whose stories have traditionally been told by outsiders.

In three elegant essays, Achebe seeks to rescue African culture from narratives written about it by Europeans. Looking through the prism of his experiences as a student in English schools in Nigeria, he provides devastating examples of European cultural imperialism. He examines the impact that his novel Things Fall Apart had on efforts to reclaim Africa's story. And he argues for the importance of writing and living the African experience because, he believes, Africa needs stories told by Africans.

Customer Reviews:

If you like Achebe, or care about indigenous literature.......2004-10-05

Since the book is already well-summarized above, I'll just give my own reaction.

I've read a number of Achebe's novels and one essay (the excellent critique of Heart of Darkness) and really enjoyed the "backstage" feeling of hearing the author's first person voice - an insightful and kindly voice. For me, the effect of Achebe's strong positions is heightened by the dignified presentation, and of course by the poignant and funny stories from his own life that he uses to illustrate those positions. As compared to one of my other favorite authors, James Baldwin, Achebe's writing includes less calls to action, and more explanation. For instance, even in his sharp critique of Vidiadhar Naipaul's novels, Achebe's first priority is to shine light on the processes that led to Naipul's failures of vision. I think people who have read Achebe's fiction or essays and liked it, or generally care about literature from an indigenous or "Third World" perspective will really enjoy this short text. Definitely worth the cost, and may be available from the library.

Long Live our blessed Statesman and elder.......2001-11-01

Long live the proud son of Africa and our respected statesman.
Achebe the honest and truthful dispenser of both sides of the story. Colonial griots (to borrow Achebe's words) such as Elspeth Huxley and other apologists have for too long been left alone to justify the dispossession of precious lands and cultures. Until the proud son of Africa made them eat their own words and exposed them for what they are. Dishonest griots deftly laying the groundwork for self-enrichment at the expense of peace loving and decent Human Beings.
Chinua Achebe as exemplified by his few but precious books writes not to make money but only when he must say something useful. Unlike modern day "authors" who are more about money than substance. I have no doubt Achebe can write profound and moving accounts of African and world issues at the rate of one book a day but he chose only to spend his time teaching.
It is obvious why the Nobel Prize went to Wole Soyinka instead of Chinua Achebe. Achebe refuses to write for a "foreign" audience and does not take his marching orders from anybody. He is his own man. Africans and honest people all over the world have in their own ways given Achebe the best prize in the world.
Continuous interest in his worthwhile classics such as Things Fall Apart,The Man of the People,No longer at Ease,Anthills of the Savannah, Morning Yet on Creation Day,Hopes and Impediments and many others.

Home and Exile may be a small book but has enough three pence (from Achebes "somebody knock me down and have three pence!") to liberate nations and individuals from the grip and stench of colonial and racist apologia masquerading as literature.

Long live Achebe, proud son of Africa and citizen of the world.
To know Achebe (by reading his books) is to know how to be an unassuming and proud Human Being who quitely and calmly states his truth for the benefit of us all.

A Great Peice of Compact History.......2001-01-20

Achebe's work was informative, thought provocing, and at times amusing. His work is another example of how important it is for all people to tell their own story/history, especially people who were once disposessed. This little book inspired me to write a few ideas to prevent my experiences from being misinterpreted.

Insightful ramblings from the ascetic, Achebe.......2000-08-19

The physical brevity of Achebe's "autobiography" truly belies the intrisic wisdom he so effortlessly spews upon his listeners. Mr. Achebe sets out to deconstruct the manifold, post-colonial ills (endemic to the dispossessed of African diasopora) with the assistance of historical literature, creation fables, and his own personal memories. Indeed, a thought provoking manifesto for any fan of the great Achebe; one which will aid the reader to pursue further literature with a new sense of enlightenment.

Home and Exile.......2000-07-25

Excellent! Achebe has done it again. This is a must read!

The Poems of Exile: Tristia and the Black Sea Letters

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The Poems of Exile: Tristia and the Black Sea Letters
Ovid
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520242602

Book Description

In the year A.D. 8, Emperor Augustus sentenced the elegant, brilliant, and sophisticated Roman poet Ovid to exile--permanently, as it turned out--at Tomis, modern Constantza, on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea. The real reason for the emperor's action has never come to light, and all of Ovid's subsequent efforts to secure either a reprieve or, at the very least, a transfer to a less dangerous place of exile failed. Two millennia later, the agonized, witty, vivid, nostalgic, and often slyly malicious poems he wrote at Tomis remain as fresh as the day they were written, a testament for exiles everywhere, in all ages.
The two books of the Poems of Exile, the Lamentations (Tristia) and the Black Sea Letters (Epistulae ex Ponto), chronicle Ovid's impressions of Tomis--its appalling winters, bleak terrain, and sporadic raids by barbarous nomads--as well as his aching memories and ongoing appeals to his friends and his patient wife to intercede on his behalf. While pretending to have lost his old literary skills and even to be forgetting his Latin, in the Poems of Exile Ovid in fact displays all his virtuoso poetic talent, now concentrated on one objective: ending the exile. But his rhetorical message falls on obdurately deaf ears, and his appeals slowly lose hope. A superb literary artist to the end, Ovid offers an authentic, unforgettable panorama of the death-in-life he endured at Tomis.

Exile's Return: A Literary Odyssey of the 1920s (Penguin Classics)

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Exile's Return
Classic history of the Lost Generation
Exhile's Return: No Place Like Home
A book that defied yet exceeded my expectations
this is an excellent piece of literature

Exile's Return: A Literary Odyssey of the 1920s (Penguin Classics)
Malcolm Cowley
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140187766

Customer Reviews:

Exile's Return.......2007-02-10

Exile's Return

This is a book of essays, anecdotes, and observations. They are primarily concerned with the 'Lost Generation' of American writers who spent time in Paris between 1918 and 1930. Donald W. Faulkner provides the Introduction and Cowley, who made some revisions to the 1934 publication in 1951, writes a note on the text.
I imagine that many of the 'senior citizens', such as myself, will have some sense of familiarity with the subject matter. A few may have read the book in the days of their youth. Unless they are experts on the subject they will find Cowley's intimate perspective interesting, and they will enjoy the easy accessible style of the writing.
For younger generations it may not be the best introduction to the period. The names Hart Crane, Harry Crosby, and Edmund Wilson should have some resonance, as well those more familiar ones such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
Appendices include A Selective Chronology of Events from 1915 to 1934, and A Tabular History of the Literary Life, 1924-1949.
Many detailed works on the authors and the period have been written since. Cowley's perceptions do not date, as they are more of less contemporary rather than historical. But it must be said that they do not provide a suitably informative introduction for those readers not already familiar with the territory.

Classic history of the Lost Generation.......2004-12-03

Cowley was many things: author, poet, editor, reviewer, American expatriate in Paris. He was aware of his diverse past and constantly strove to contextualize himself within what was going on around him. Exile's Return was his first such attempt. In it Cowley recounts his experiences in such notable hot-spots as pre-war Greenwich Village and inter-war Paris. Moreover, he examines the movements of which he was a part within larger historical/literary/artistic trends.

There are some things to bear in mind with this work, however. Cowley returned to his past often, and often his return would bring re-evaluation. While there is some evidence of this habit across the various editions of Exile's Return, the trail of revision is more apparent by comparing this work against other retrospectives (Dream of the Golden Mountains, View From 80, etc.).

Another issue with Cowley is that he (as most, especially Modernist, writers) tends to favor his own position. That is, he perhaps exaggerates his own part and importance. This tendency becomes controversial within the context of his chapter on Harry Crosby. While they were clearly acquainted, Caresse Crosby (Harry's wife), among others, thought that Cowley didn't know Harry well enough to write what they considered a spurious account of Crosby's last days.

However, even with these negatives the book is highly recommended. In it, one gets a concise introduction to Modernism, important figures in the expatriate movement and inter-war Paris, and pre-war New York. Further, one receives a context of how these movements and people fit together. Among Cowley's works, this is one of his finest.

Exhile's Return: No Place Like Home.......2002-02-20

Cowley was the ultimate in a thinking,toughly idealistic American living a literary dream in an epoch which permitted the indulgence. Jaggedly incisive as a writer, Cowley decided instead that editing was his prowess and observation his art. So he proceeded. Much romantic lore has been made of the many great American authors inhabiting the Left Bank scene in Paris in the 1920s. Exile's Return makes sense of the historical, literary and personal sequence of events leading to this decade-long picnic, and transforms the legend and nostalgia into the movingly profound minutiae of everyday life and thought amongst the loose collection of free spirits who changed modern conceptions of Western literary art forever. Artistic and intellectual achievements notwithstanding, "une generation perdue" comprised some very desperate and talented people trying to make sense of a world gone mad and define themselves within the insanity. A lot like now. Imagine an author being able to account for the global, tragic complexity emblematic in 9/11 and explain its implications for humanity and civilization's expressions. Flash back eight decades and you have Cowley's subject matter and his accomplishment. Let's hope someday somebody equals Malcolm Cowley's formidable ability to observe and explicate, and make us love, in retrospect, a loveless and temporarily hopeless age as it finds its way into our favorite novels and poems.

A book that defied yet exceeded my expectations.......1999-12-16

I had expected EXILE'S return to be more of a straightforward history of the Lost Generation, and was somewhat surprised to find instead a profoundly insightful, exceedingly well-written reflection on Malcolm Cowley's literary generation. As a result, many writers that we associate with that decade, e.g., Ernst Hemingway, receive almost no mention, whereas others, e.g., Hart Crane, get a considerable amount. The highest praise that I can bestow on this book is that in looking now at the poetry and literature of that period, I feel much more at home in their world than I did before reading Cowley. A marvelous book in man, many ways.

this is an excellent piece of literature.......1998-10-26

i strongly recommend this book to anyone who needs more insight into the idea of a lost Generation

Home, Exile, Homeland: Film, Media, and the Politics of Place (Afi Film Readers)

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Home, Exile, Homeland: Film, Media, and the Politics of Place (Afi Film Readers)
Hamid Naficy
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415919479

Book Description

Global changes in capital, power, technology and the media have caused massive shifts in how we define home and community, leaving redrawn territories and globalized contexts.

This interdisciplinary study of the media brings together essays by accomplished critics to discuss the way film, television, music, and computer and electronic media are shaping identities and cultures in an increasingly globalized world. Ranging from intensely personal to highly theoretical, the contributors explore our complex negotiation of "home" and homeland" in a postmodern world. Contributors: Homi Bhabha, Thomas Elsaesser, Rosa Linda Fregoso, Teshome H. Gabriel, George Lipsitz, Margaret Morse, David Morley, John Peters, Patricia Seed, Ella Shohat, and Vivian Sobchack.

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Ovid's Poetry of Exile
Ovid
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801839165

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"Someone clever, passionate, and heartbroken comes very near us, and I think it is Ovid. I found it impossible to stop reading these poems. And poems they are."--Richard Wilbur.

Nowhere at home;: Letters from exile of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman

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Nowhere at home;: Letters from exile of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman
Emma Goldman
Manufacturer: Schocken Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Hilarious and heartwarming
The second book in the series is just as good the first.
The second book in the series is just as good the second.

The Exiles At Home
Hilary McKay
Manufacturer: Margaret K. McElderry
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0689506104

Customer Reviews:

Hilarious and heartwarming.......2007-09-15

Pay no attention to the School Library Journal review, which describes this book's conflict as "single and simple." Exiles at Home is instead a rich and complex and laugh-out-loud great book. The Conroy sisters, first introduced in The Exiles (because they are sent to spend the summer, "in exile," with their Big Grandma) must come up with 10 pounds a month to send for the education of a boy they have promised to sponsor in Africa. Their increasingly frantic attempts to raise the money involve them in bank robbery (what they think is bank robbery, anyway), an ill-advised kind of catering service (they make "squashy" marmalade sandwiches in the only private place they can find, the dog's kennel, and then sell them to the other kids at school, especially to a desperate character they call "The Thin One"), and some very questionable babysitting tactics (when baby Peter shows signs of learning good behavior and therefore outgrowing the need for their services, they remind him of how to get dirty and mash his food into his hair). And you will meet other wonderful characters along the way, including Joseck, the boy in Africa, Toby and Emma, the elderly couple who employ the girls as gardeners, and the fabulous Big Grandma herself. I am a school librarian and my sixth grade teachers have asked me to recommend a new readaloud title--this is it, hands-down, my number one recommendation.

The second book in the series is just as good the first........1998-12-13

Problems start for Ruth Conroy when she secretly decides to sponser a young boy in Africa so that he can go to school. Tyring to raise ten pounds a month is not as simple as she first thought, though, and so she has to let her sister, Naomi into the secret and together they come up with wierd and wonderful ways to earn the money. The Little Ones, Rachel and Phoebe aren't kept out of the secret for long though, and decide to help by selling sandwiches at school, which are made in next door's dog kennell! This hirarious book is a must for all lovers of 'The Exiles'.

The second book in the series is just as good the second........1998-12-13

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The Poems of Exile (Penguin Classics)
Ovid
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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AWARD SCIENCE FICTION READER: The Dancing Girl of Ganymede; The Last Evolution; The Traveling Crag; Exile of the Eons; Ship of Darkness; You'll Never Go Home Again; The Star Beast

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AWARD SCIENCE FICTION READER: The Dancing Girl of Ganymede; The Last Evolution; The Traveling Crag; Exile of the Eons; Ship of Darkness; You'll Never Go Home Again; The Star Beast
Alden H. (editor) (Sam Moskowitz; Leigh Brackett; John W. Campbell Jr.; Theodore Sturgeon; Arthur C. Clarke; A. E. van Vogt; Clifford Simak; Poul Anderson) Norton
Manufacturer: Award Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GVTSGK

Leonard and Reva Brooks: Artists in Exile in San Miguel de Allende

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Artists in Exile

Leonard and Reva Brooks: Artists in Exile in San Miguel de Allende
John Virtue
Manufacturer: McGill-Queen's University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0773522980

Customer Reviews:

Artists in Exile.......2002-04-10

John Virtue has done a splendid job in researching, writing and assembling this highly readable and beautifully conceived volume--part biography, part art book, part history. In Leonard and Reva Brooks: Artists in Exile in San Miguel de Allende, he has recorded the lives of two fascinating individuals who chose to settle in this small Mexican art community in 1947 and has shed light on the Mexican and Canadian art scene of the time. In addition, he has created a moving portrait of the expatriate community and life in this unique Mexican town. (San Miguel de Allende should award him the keys to the city.)

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