Reading a Work in its Materialist Essays - Afro-Caribbean History

Reading a Work in its Materialist Reading a Work in its Materiality: C. L. R. James' Toussaint L'Ouverture / The Black Jacobins This seminar paperas part of a broader project of theorizing the materiality of language, literature, reading,...is a consideration of a particular literary work in its materiality. Specifically, the paper reads C. L. R. James' play The Black Jacobins, an earlier version of which was staged in 1938 as an intervention in the debates around the Ethiopian crisis. That first version of the play, under the title Toussaint L'Ouverture, was performed in London in 1938 with Paul Robeson in the title role. The revised and re-titled version is included in The C. L. R. James Reader, published in 1992. I am interested in explaining the play's materiality. I believe that this is neither merely a matter of the experiential impact of that particular run of performances by a Black actor legendary for his stage presence and powerful voice, nor a matter of the use of the various theatrical devices to achieve particular effects. These matters will be discussed, but as I regard materiality to be a matte r of the material relations, this paper's reading of the play will emphasize the social relations of labor, both those depicted in the play and those which conditioned its very production as a cultural work. My two-fold aim in this paper, then, in reading the play in its context, is to critically discuss what it means to read a work (that is, a text, a play, a performance, a discursive intervention, a cultural production,...) and its context materially, and thus to begin to develop an effective theory of materiality and reading. The paper begins with a definition of the context of the play, taking into account that to define "context" is already to read. This is true of all reading, of course, but as I try to show, such context-reading is necessary for developing a coherent and reliable understanding both of the text which is read and of the context in which reading has emerged as a social possibility. The question of the emergence of the historical context of reading (that is, of education, literacy, printing,...) is important to consider in postcolonial studies, as it has always been a field for reading and theorizing the relationships among various forms of discourse. For example, the difference(s) between orality and literacy, or speech and writing, are familiar and important points of discussion and debate in postcolonial studies specifically and in cultural and literary studies generally. After providing historical context and reading the play in some of its detail, I will address these points of discu ssion as a means for clarifying further what reading materially means and why it is important. Anna Grimshaw, editor of The C. L. R. James Reader, a project on which she consulted with James, writes that Toussaint L'Ouverture was staged at London's Westminster Theatre as "an intervention in the debates surrounding the Ethiopian crisis" (5). What was the nature of this crisis? The crisis had to do with the Italian annexation of Ethiopia (or Abyssinia) in 1936. W. E. B. DuBois characterizes the relevant events in his historical work The World and Africa: When the British seized Egypt [in 1874] to secure the Suez Canal they occupied the Sudan [...]; they had designs on Ethiopia, but hesitated to follow up their victory over the Emperor Theodore. When the Sudan revolted, the British egged on Italy to annex the highlands of Ethiopia. Italy tried this but was soundly beaten by Menelek at Adowa on March 2, 1906 [...]. The allies promised Italy to give her Ethiopia after the First World War, but failed to do so. Italy, affronted, attacked Ethiopia in 1935. The League of Nations failed to restrain her and Britain and France refused Ethiopia arms. Italy annexed Ethiopia, with Churchill's approval. The Emperor, Haile Selassie, took refuge in England. (268-269) The crisis, which like all crises is a manifestation of contradiction, is succinctly expressed by DuBois in these last two sentences, which portray England as both the supporter of the Italian annexation of Ethiopia and the refuge of its emperor-in-exile. How can one country, England, or indeed the League of Nations to which all nations involved