Equipped with this understanding of the poem, I photographed a local South Asian grocery market that I shop at and used using digital art brushes to draw in the “X.” This art of the New India Bazar portrays a modern telling of Brathwaite’s “SycoraX” for several reasons. First, the name of the store itself suggests that its goods—like Caliban himself—are a product of mixed cultures. Housing both an Indian Nutella brand and Pakistani Magic Masala Lays, this store draws from a diaspora of South Asian influences and the newer American environment it finds itself in. These represent a third culture of South Asian American immigrants, similar to Caliban’s own representation of an Afro-Caribbean third culture. Second, the spelling of Bazar struck me the most. Bazar is, at its roots, a Persian and South Asian word meaning markets. However, the English language has adapted this word to its own spelling, “bazaar.” I found it interesting that this store would faithfully use the more ‘traditional’ spelling of the word as it directly translates from the Persian term, rather than the ubiquitous spelling. To emphasize this, I replaced the “z” with a characteristic “X” to further shield the interpretation and meaning of the word. For those unaccustomed to this spelling, they would have a more difficult (but not impossible) time deciphering it than those who are familiar with it. In true Brathwaite fashion, I have found my own connection to a third culture through the exercise of language.
Inspired by Brathwaite’s “SycoraX,” I produced a mixed-media artwork that reflects the poem’s theme of language as autonomy. Caliban in Brathwaite’s piece mentions, “wid dis X now / long before yu cud say jackie robb / inson or rt-d2 or shout / wreX / dis ya obeah bloX” (pp. 47-51). His language is strikingly oral—transcribing sounds rather than words. Brathwaite writes Caliban to speak in a voice true to him and resist changes that would make his poem easier to read for a Western audience. Often, Brathwaite takes advantage of the novel character “X” as a substitute or variable in many of these oral fragments, so he complicates the reader’s experience even further by shielding words and phrases at a time. Brathwaite preserves Caliban’s third-culture power by establishing a language that defies traditional English. By staying true to his language, Caliban can negotiate a space for himself in a densely Western population.
Equipped with this understanding of the poem, I photographed a local South Asian grocery market that I shop at and used using digital art brushes to draw in the “X.” This art of the New India Bazar portrays a modern telling of Brathwaite’s “SycoraX” for several reasons. First, the name of the store itself suggests that its goods—like Caliban himself—are a product of mixed cultures. Housing both an Indian Nutella brand and Pakistani Magic Masala Lays, this store draws from a diaspora of South Asian influences and the newer American environment it finds itself in. These represent a third culture of South Asian American immigrants, similar to Caliban’s own representation of an Afro-Caribbean third culture. Second, the spelling of Bazar struck me the most. Bazar is, at its roots, a Persian and South Asian word meaning markets. However, the English language has adapted this word to its own spelling, “bazaar.” I found it interesting that this store would faithfully use the more ‘traditional’ spelling of the word as it directly translates from the Persian term, rather than the ubiquitous spelling. To emphasize this, I replaced the “z” with a characteristic “X” to further shield the interpretation and meaning of the word. For those unaccustomed to this spelling, they would have a more difficult (but not impossible) time deciphering it than those who are familiar with it. In true Brathwaite fashion, I have found my own connection to a third culture through the exercise of language.
1 Comment
Ally Aggarwal
1/13/2024 04:00:39 pm
soo insightful, Dashmi!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|