Dramatic beginnings of The Black Jacobins

Douglas, R. (2016) Dramatic beginnings of The Black Jacobins. Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal, 13(1), 9.

Abstract

Review of Christian Høgsbjerg, ed., C.L.R. James, Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History Until recently, one little-known fact about C.L.R. James's famous Haitian revolution-based The Black Jacobins project was that it both began and ended life as a play, bookending the first and last editions of his classic history. It would be hard to overstate the importance of Christian Høgsbjerg's new critical edition of C.L.R. James's Toussaint Louverture because it makes widely available in published form for the first time the script of the elusive first play. For want of this playtext util 2013, James's completely different 1967 second play The Black Jacobins had been read as the 1936 play, and even billed as such when published. Inspired by the critical edition of Toussaint Louverture, I comment on a set of fascinating variants made in James's own distinctive hand to one script of the first play.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: States funding as: British Academy: SG-51932 AHRC: AH/I002662/1 AH/I002662/2
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Douglas, Dr Rachel
• Authors: Douglas, R.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > French
• Journal Name: Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal
• Publisher: University of Miami
• ISSN: 1547-7150
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 The Author
• First Published: First published in Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal 13(1): 9
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy