Wednesday, April 10, 2013

"Hunting Is Not Those Heads On The Wall," Le Roi Jones/ Amiri Baraka

This seminal essay is both a corner-piece of "The Black Arts" Movement, and also one of the most important statements of "Poetics" (and the relationship of thought/feeling ['hunting'] to art [those heads on the wall] of the past 50 years. Originally published in HOME (1966), while still under the name Le Roi Jones, his essay for some reason did not appear in The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka reader. Baraka makes similar points in many of his longer works as well, but the succinctness of this essay in theorizing a new American vernacular which is as oral as it is written (in contrast to its Euro-forebears)
is immensely useful in the classroom, or even for any young rock and roll musician who is sick of being told rock music pales in comparison to page-based poetry.

The essay is not available on line (to force you to go the library), but discussions of it are.

CS

http://books.google.com/books?id=srqVIZrRxl0C&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128&dq=%22hunting+is+not+those+heads+on+the+wall%22+%22Jones%22&source=bl&ots=Y9UqsFSLYo&sig=MODLU1AxGme5OEPKzC-Kuql_nMw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=STVmUezvD-HxiwLR14GoDQ&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22hunting%20is%20not%20those%20heads%20on%20the%20wall%22%20%22Jones%22&f=false

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