Titre : Caribbean poetry
Niveau : lycée (de B1 à B2)
Langue : anglais
Objectifs
Culturel : découverte de la poésie caribéenne anglophone (sons, rythmes et thèmes)
Linguistique : analyse des différences entre graphie et phonie
Attention !
Cette page contient des signes phonétiques qui n'apparaîtront correctement à l'écran que si vous avez installé la police phonétique gratuite « SILSophiaIPA ».
La police est téléchargeable sur le site de SIL International.
http://scripts.sil.org/
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Contenu de la séquence proposée
Cette séquence vise à sensibiliser les élèves aux rythmes et aux sons de la poésie anglophone des Caraïbes. Elle s’adresse à des élèves de lycée et peut être abordée dès la classe de seconde en se concentrant sur l’oralité et les rythmes de la poésie. Toutefois, les thèmes s’intègrent plus facilement dans les nouveaux programmes du cycle terminal.
Deux auteurs ont été retenus : Benjamin Zephaniah / zef«ÈnaI« /, car l’oralité de sa poésie, proche des rythmes reggae, va interpeller les élèves très rapidement. Pour cette raison, le poème retenu pour la première activité est présenté sous forme d’un document vidéo dans lequel le poète récite l’une de ses œuvres. L’analyse du texte abordera principalement les différences entre graphie et phonie.
Le deuxième auteur est John Agard / eIÈgaùd /, poète d’origine guyanaise. Comme Benjamin Zephaniah, nombre de ses poèmes s’adressent aux enfants ou aux jeunes, et/ou parlent de l’identité culturelle, du combat pour la reconnaissance et l’égalité des droits entre les groupes ethniques. L’un des poèmes les plus connus de John Agard est Listen, Mr. Oxford Don, dans lequel le poète explique que même s’il n’est pas diplômé mais immigré (I didn’t graduate / I immigrate), il peut lui aussi s’approprier la langue anglaise pour la détourner (mugging de Queen’s English / is the story of my life). Le poème sur lequel se basera cette séance, intitulé Half-Caste, montre que l’on peut jouer avec la forme d’un mot pour en extraire le sens et même le vider de son sens.
Le poème de John Agard pourra donc être abordé en compréhension orale puis écrite pour faire ressortir toute la richesse de la langue et du message.
En fonction de la classe, cette séquence se déroulera sur deux ou trois séances. Pour exploiter au mieux les différents supports proposés, il conviendra de réaliser cette séquence en laboratoire multimédia. Avec une classe de section européenne ayant histoire comme DNL, il sera intéressant d’approfondir l’histoire de ces communautés.
Exemple : the poet Kamau Brathwaite has stated that “It was in language that the slave was perhaps most successfully imprisoned by his master, and it was (mis)use of it, the he perhaps most effectively rebelled." If so then the genre of oral West Indian poetry has indeed been an effective form of rebellion and resistance to European ethnocentrism.
Consulter : John Agard and The Poetics of Immigration
www.rootswomen.com/
Documents principaux
- Half-Caste, de John Agard
- Une interview de l'auteur sur la même page, dont le script est en ligne (PDF, 17 ko).
www.bbc.co.uk/
Documents secondaires
- Carte des Antilles
www.cia.gov/
- Talking Turkeys, de Benjamin Zephaniah
- Vidéo de Talking Turkeys
www.bbc.co.uk/
Déroulement de la séquence proposée
Introduction : the West Indies
Pour que les élèves comprennent bien ce que recoupe la notion de Carribean poetry, travailler d’abord avec une carte pour leur faire repérer la position centrale des îles qui a donné ce multiculturalisme caractéristique : les Antilles sont un carrefour entre cultures anglophone, hispanophone et francophone.
http://worldatlas.com/
Dub poetry
Cette activité se décompose en trois temps :
- découverte du document vidéo ;
- analyse des différences graphie-phonie ;
- recherche sur le poète et sur le terme de dub poetry.
Remarque : ne pas donner trop d’informations avant de lancer l’activité afin que les élèves découvrent et se familiarisent avec ce qu’on appelle en anglais Black British performance poetry (voir documents complémentaires en fin de dossier).
Sur le site de la BBC, dans la rubrique « Arts », une page est consacrée à la poésie. On peut y écouter ou voir les poètes réciter leurs propres œuvres.
Visionner la vidéo de Benjamin Zephaniah en train de réciter Talking Turkeys : The Rasta poet says liberate turkeys from the tyranny of Christmas!
www.bbc.co.uk/
Ensuite, les élèves répondent aux questions.
Pour l’activité de compréhension écrite, les élèves lisent silencieusement le poème avant de compléter la grille.
www.bbc.co.uk/
La dernière activité proposée est très ludique : les élèves peuvent composer un court texte de forme poétique et le transformer en ligne en dub poetry à l’aide du « Dialectizer ».
http://rinkworks.com/
« Half-Caste », de John Agard
Les activités consacrées à ce poème peuvent occuper toute une séance de cours.
Au lieu de découvrir directement le poème Half-Caste de John Agard, les élèves vont préalablement écouter un document audio dans lequel plusieurs adolescents parlent du poème.
Des questions de compréhension (voir Fiche élève 2) les aideront ensuite à réfléchir sur la composition de ce poème.
Dans un deuxième temps, ils découvriront le poème à l’écrit et vérifieront ce qu’ils ont compris, puis discuteront sur les idées et arguments avancés dans l’interview.
www.bbc.co.uk/
On peut écouter et télécharger l’interview en descendant sur la page, jusqu’à parvenir à la rubrique : Poems from different cultures, Half Caste by John Agard (Download MP3 / Play Real Audio). Script de l'interview (PDF, 17 ko).
www.bbc.co.uk/
Avant de faire écouter l’interview, préciser la démarche et les consignes aux élèves afin qu’ils se préparent à cette écoute. Les questions posées sur la fiche suivent bien sûr l’ordre de l’interview.
Après la compréhension orale, mais avant la compréhension écrite, on peut en outre leur donner les indications suivantes sur le contexte du poème :
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“Half-Caste”: the context of the poem
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John Agard came to England from Guyana in 1977. Like many people from the Caribbean, he is mixed race: his mother is Portuguese but born in Guyana, and his father is black. One of the things he enjoys about living in England is the wide range of people he meets: 'The diversity of cultures here is very exciting'. However, one of the things he doesn't like is the view of racial origins, which is implied in the word 'half-caste', still used by many people to describe people of mixed race. The term is now considered rude and insulting.
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Pour l’activité de compréhension écrite, les élèves doivent repérer certains aspects du poème, et ce afin de reprendre les idées qui ont été abordées en compréhension orale. Une mise en commun permettra de reparler des structures lexicales et grammaticales typiques du Caribbean English.
Le commentaire du poème se fera à l’oral en classe. On pourra proposer en conclusion cette remarque que fait John Agard sur son poème : "This imposition of half, half, half on a person's total human complexity implies that some sort of 'purity' has been subverted. A child of mixed race is a tangible, loving expression of human beings from different cultural backgrounds getting together – that should be seen not as something threatening, but as something enriching..."
Introduction: the West Indies
Watch the online map to locate the West Indies.
http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/carib.htm
Dub poetry
A. Visit the following website to watch the video and answer the questions below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/poetry/outloud/realmedia/zephaniah_turkeys.ram
1. Benjamin Zephaniah
a. Describe what he looks like.
b. Where is he?
c. What is the audience doing?
d. What do you think he’s doing?
2. The text
Listen to what Benjamin Zephaniah says and write down the following words you hear.
a. Pick out the word that you hear again and again in the text.
b. Pick out the name of a famous celebration.
c. Pick out the name of a person (repeated twice).
d. Select the words that, for you, best apply to the man and his performance: funny – rhythm – boring – dance – poetry – recite – dull (monotonous) – reggae
3. Which sentence best describes who Benjamin Zephaniah is?
Benjamin Zephaniah is …
- … a poet who pleads on behalf of turkeys at Christmas time.
- … a reggae dancer performing his latest hit called ‘Turkeys’ on stage.
- … a comic artist performing his one-man-show’s most popular extract: ‘Turkeys’.
B. Now visit the following website to read the text and answer the questions below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/poetry/outloud/zephaniah_turkeys.shtml
1. What kind of text is it?
2. What is the main topic?
3. What about the tone?
4. Sum up the text in about 40 words.
5. List all the positive expressions related to turkeys.
6. Now write down the pieces of advice the author gives us for Christmas.
7. Who does the ‘turkey‘ symbolize?
8. Is it more or less difficult to understand than what the author said in the video?
C. Words and sounds
Listen to the poem again and compare what the author says with what is actually written.
Fill in the grid below.
D. Dub poetry
Benjamin Zephaniah uses a lot of Jamaican English and Caribbean English in his writings. Born in Birmingham in 1958, he grew up in Jamaica and in Handsworth, where he was sent to a school for uncontrollable, rebellious students who were considered 'born failures'. He ended up in jail for burglary. After prison, he turned from crime to music and poetry: 'I started writing poetry because I didn't like poetry.' He is often called a ‘dub poet’.
Visit Benjamin Zephaniah’s website and collect information to answer the questions below.
http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/truth.html
1. What does he consider himself?
2. Is the oral tradition in poetry important for him?
3. What is ‘dub poetry’ for him?
4. What other dub poets does he mention?
E. Your turn!
Create a small poem (5 lines max.) and turn it into Jamaican English on this website:
http://rinkworks.com/dialect/
The Dialectizer turns your text into the dialect you choose. Select the ‘Jive’ dialect in the ‘Dialectize Text‘ menu. Then enter your text and click on ‘Dialectize‘.
Remember: this is just for fun!
Fiche élève 2 : « Half-Caste »
Oral comprehension
Listen to the following interview and answer the following questions.
a. General information
1. Name of the poet:
2. Title of the poem:
3. What is the message about?
b. Structure of the poem
1. Image at the beginning of the poem:
2. First comparison:
3. New expression created by the poet:
4. Second comparison:
5. New expression created by the poet:
6. Third comparison:
7. New expression created by the poet:
8. Two artists mentioned in the poem:
9. Expressions including the word ‘half’ in the poem:
c. Language used in the poem
1. Ethnic dialect the poem is written in:
2. Write the equivalents of the following Caribbean English words in standard English:
- ‘dat’:
- ‘wid’:
- ‘yu’:
3. Pick out three aspects of Agard’s language that are not usually used in poems.
4. Can you imagine why he used such language?
d. Symbolic meaning of the poem
1. What is the value of the expression ‘half-caste’ in this poem, according to the girl?
2. What two moral principles is the poem based on?
Written comprehension
Read the poem once and then identify groups of words.
a. Find the word ‘half-caste’ and all the expressions including ‘half’.
b. List the Caribbean words and grammar forms.
c. How does the poet manage to make his message clear?
Corrigés
Fiche élève 1 : Dub poetry
A. 1. Benjamin Zephaniah
a. Describe what he looks like. He’s a tall Black man with long dreadlocks. He smiles while he’s talking. He walks to and fro on the stage as he talks. He looks nice and friendly.
b. Where is he? We have no precise indication, yet it seems it is some TV show stage.
c. What is the audience doing? We can hear them laugh when the poet says something funny.
d. What do you think he’s doing? He’s talking. Maybe he is an artist performing a fun one-man-show.
2. The text
a. Pick out the word that you hear again and again in the text. turkey
b. Pick out the name of a famous celebration. Christmas
c. Pick out the name of a person (repeated twice). Ben – Benji
d. Select the words that, for you, best apply to the man and his performance: funny – rhythm – recite – reggae
3. Benjamin Zephaniah is … a poet who pleads on behalf of turkeys at Christmas time.
B. 1. What kind of text is it? It may be a song or a poem in five stanzas.
2. What is the main topic? It deals with turkeys at Christmas time.
3. What about the tone? It is full of humour and irony.
4. Sum up the poem in about 40 words. The poet makes a plea in favour of the turkeys which are slaughtered each Christmas. He asks us to reflect on our customs and wonder what the true feeling of Christmas is: a moment of sharing and happiness.
5. List all the positive expressions related to turkeys. Turkeys just wanna hav fun – Turkeys are cool – every turkey has a Mum – Dey all hav a right to a life – Turkeys just wanna play reggae / Turkeys just wanna hip-hop – Turkeys like getting presents, dey wanna watch christmas TV, / Turkeys hav brains an turkeys feel pain / In many ways like yu an me.
6. Now write down the pieces of advice the poet gives us for Christmas. Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas – Don't eat it, keep it alive/It could be yu mate, an not on your plate – Invite dem indoors fe sum greens / Let dem eat cake an let dem partake / In a plate of organic grown beans, / spare dem de cut of de knife / Join Turkeys United an dey'll be delighted
7. Who does the ‘turkey” symbolize? It symbolizes any person that is so different from us that we think we have nothing in common with them. Yet they can be our friends too and can share a moment of happiness with us if we make an effort to open up to them.
8. Is it more or less difficult to understand than what the poet said in the video? (personal answer)
C. 1. yu 2. dis 3. cos 4. jus 5. wanna 6. hav 7. an 8. dem 9. dey 10. dose 11. dere 12. de 13. wid 14. dan 15. mek 16. loadsa 17. fe
D. 1. What does he consider himself? “if I had to chose one I would start with oral poet. I say this because as I write my poetry, I can hear the sound of it”.
2. Is the oral tradition in poetry important for him? “The oral tradition thrives when there are restrictions on peoples’ abilities to speak or when they have no access to the media”.
3. What is ‘dub poetry’ for him? “If you can see poetry as a tree with many branches and oral poetry as one of those branches, then a leaf on that branch could be Dub Poetry. Dub poetry has its roots in Jamaica and is closely linked to Reggae music. […] Dub poetry is political, no one made this rule, that's just the way it is.”
4. What other dub poets does he mention? Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jean Breeze, Oku Onuora and Lillian Allen
Fiche élève 2 : « Half-Caste »
I. a. 1. Name of the poet: John Agard
2. Title of the poem: Half-Caste
3. What is the message about? Racism
b. 1. Image at the beginning of the poem: the poet is standing on just one leg.
2. First comparison: a painter using two colours
3. New expression created by the poet: half-caste painting
4. Second comparison: someone playing white and black keys on the piano
5. New expression created by the poet: half-caste symphony
6. Third comparison: cloudy weather in England
7. New expression created by the poet: half-caste weather
8. Two artists mentioned in the poem: Picasso, Tchaikovsky
9. Expressions including the word ‘half’ in the poem: half a hand – half an eye – half a shadow
c. 1. Ethnic dialect the poem is written in: Carribean dialect
2. Write the equivalents of the following Caribbean English words in standard English: ‘dat’: that – ‘wid’: with – ‘yu’: you.
3. Pick out three aspects of Agard’s language that are not usually used in poems. Non-standard grammar (“ wha yu mean?”); very few capital letters; almost no punctuation.
4. Can you imagine why he used such language? The poem is meant to be performed (orally).
d. Symbolic meaning of the poem
1. What is the value of the expression ‘half-caste’ in this poem, according to the girl? The use of this particular term helps describe mixed race people.
2. What two moral principles is the poem based on? Equality and identity.
II. b. List the Caribbean words and grammar forms.
Explain yuself
wha yu mean
when Picasso/ mix red an green
de sky
in dat case
some o dem cloud
dem overcast
so spiteful dem dont want de sun pass
dah piano
an mix a black key
wid a white key
wid de keen / half of mih ear
I close half-a-eye
an when Ø moon beginØ to glow
c. How does the poet manage to make his message clear? By repeating ideas and words, and by using rhyme and Caribbean sounds.
Documents complémentaires et ressources en ligne
Caribbean English
http://en.wikipedia.org/
Le texte du poème Listen Mr Oxford Don, de John Agard
www.rootswomen.com/
Article sur la poésie de John Agard
For the Guyanese poet John Agard, Caribbean English is a language in its own right. Living in Britain for the last 27 years after coming here in 1977, he is able to choose between standard and Caribbean English entirely according to the needs of the poem he is writing. And as any of his readers knows, this is something he does supremely well.
www.carouselguide.co.uk/
“Poetic justice” : interview de Benjamin Zephaniah
Interview du 20 Novembre 2000 dans le Guardian
As poet-in-residence in a barrister’s chambers, Benjamin Zephaniah learned a lot about the law – and injustice. Here he talks to Marcel Berlins, while, in a new poem printed below, he recounts the story of a Gypsy woman whose appeal for asylum was dismissed 'because rape does not constitute torture'.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/
Article présentant la thèse d’E. Doumerc (université de Toulouse-Le Mirail)
Doing research on the influence of the Caribbean oral tradition on Black British performance poetry
www.casbah.ac.uk/
L’identité culturelle revendiquée par les "black writers" en Grande-Bretagne
The early 19th century politics also prompted the founding of a Standard English. Language was used as an emblem of a bond that brought together otherwise disunited cultural factions. […] Black writers in Britain […] have today turned the issue of language into a site of cultural resistance and assertion.
Influenced very much by the Liverpool poets and the protest singers of the 1960s such as Bob Marley and the wailers, black writers such as Linton Kwesi Johnson, James Berry, John Agard, Fred D’Aguir, Benjamin Zephaniah, Grace Nichols and Louise Bennet have reinvented a variety of dialects which have creatively expressed the black experience and politically expressed a resistance to the dominant culture. A Caribbean, claims Kamau Brathwaite, is compelled to write in a Nation Language because ‘the hurricane does not howl in iambic pentameters’. [...] The use of the Creole dialect and the calypso rhythms achieve an extraordinary interface of language and culture as it ushers in a new hybridised form of expression. The overall effect is realistic, forceful, humorous and politically sharp”.
Renuka Rajaratnam
Extrait de The Hindu, “Mugging de Queen’s English: The politics of decentring”, 6 June 2004
www.hindu.com/
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