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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: July 13, 2020 at 9:24:22 AM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-LatAm]: Winks on Rodríguez Navas, 'Idle Talk, > Deadly Talk: The Uses of Gossip in Caribbean Literature' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > Ana Rodríguez Navas. Idle Talk, Deadly Talk: The Uses of Gossip in > Caribbean Literature. New World Studies Series. Charlottesville > University of Virginia Press, 2018. 308 pp. $35.00 (paper), ISBN > 978-0-8139-4162-2; $75.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8139-4161-5. > > Reviewed by Christopher Winks (Queens College CUNY) > Published on H-LatAm (July, 2020) > Commissioned by Casey M. Lurtz > > At first glance, the premise of this study may seem obvious: the > practice of gossip can either subvert the dominant order by mocking, > outing, or otherwise exposing its representatives, or reinforce it by > scapegoating individuals incapable of, or refusing to, fit > comfortably into a given community. But Ana Rodríguez Navas's > outstanding, lucidly written, and engrossing work brings to light the > sheer complexity of the far-from-trivial phenomenon of gossip within > the Caribbean and the ways it is mobilized in key texts from the > region's literature, thereby reinforcing the dialectic between oral > (the customary mode of gossip, frequently expressed in > nation-language) and scribal practices. Rodríguez Navas states in > her acknowledgments that "this was a project many years in the > making," and what distinguishes this book from today's > run-of-the-mill scholarly monograph is precisely her thoroughness, > her assured command of languages and a broad range of texts from the > entire Caribbean region, her deft incorporation of secondary critical > sources into her argument, and the kaleidoscopic perspective with > which she approaches the topic (p. ix). Chapter by chapter, she > builds a narrative that expands outward from the local level to the > commanding heights of power, grounded in creative readings of her > primary texts. All this should inspire her (hopefully many, and not > only specialist) readers to take a fresh look at, or be welcomed to, > Caribbean literature through the lens of gossip. After all, to > paraphrase one of the authors she (sympathetically but critically) > examines, the Cuban Guillermo Cabrera Infante, is not history as a > narrative genre built on gossip of sorts? And is it not the fiction > writer's job to "tell tales" about her or his characters, even > venturing into their deepest thoughts and fears? In the Caribbean, > where so much of life is carried on in public, gossip is an integral > part of daily existence--and as Rodríguez Navas shows, it is not the > exclusive domain of women, contrary to the prevailing stereotype. > > This book tells stories about how stories are told in the Caribbean > by a variety of agents, ranging from the neighbor across the lane to > the messengers of dictatorial state power, and the author takes pains > to clarify that gossip in the Caribbean, as an important technique of > storytelling, is not some essential trait artificially linking its > diverse peoples but reflects a historical condition "where > inequality, tyranny, and long histories of domination bring with them > the constant violation of social rules," thereby creating a fertile > ground for gossip. Insofar as gossip acts to destabilize and call > into question discursive orders, it is valuable as a means of > "splinter[ing] official accounts into a more representative > proliferation of viewpoints," but it can also "corrode social ties, > disempower individuals, and silence dissenting voices" (p. 24). It is > this double-edged quality of a weapon wielded largely but far from > exclusively by the weak that Rodríguez Navas meticulously explores > in her readings. > > Summarizing and challenging what she calls the hitherto monocultural > (hence reductive) approach to gossip, Rodríguez Navas goes on to > discuss the etymologies and semantic associations of the English > "gossip," the Spanish "chisme," and the French "ragot," along with > the various nation-language words for the practice (for example, > "susu," "télédyol," "bochinche"). Using works by Gabriel García > Márquez and Jean Rhys, among others, she refutes the generally > accepted "Anglo-American" notion of gossip as a force of social > cohesion and considers instead its potential to open fissures in > previously stable communities (which the words "chisme" and > "bochinche" instantiate) precisely in the name of conservative and/or > repressive social norms. She then moves to a consideration of gossip > as a means of questioning not only master narratives but also the > very authority of narrative; gossip here acts as a corrective but > also--again--as a destabilizing force, this time of a univocal truth > of events as well as a potential means for unveiling secrets and > penetrating to a deeper reality than that commonly accepted. > Rodríguez Navas's analysis of Rhys's by-now-canonical _Wide Sargasso > Sea _(1966), by foregrounding Rochester's distance from the gossiping > community around him and his stubborn belief in a single, unvarying > truth, offers a fresh look at an overanalyzed text. And her sharply > focused discussion of Maryse Condé's novel _Célanire cou-coupé > _(2000), where gossip slides over into fantastic legend, made me > reconsider what I had previously thought to be one of Condé's lesser > novels. > > Rodríguez Navas's work on the Cuban dissident writers Reinaldo > Arenas and Guillermo Cabrera Infante cites their penchant for > publicizing on an international scale their sometimes hyperbolically > expressed, often comical and irreverent "insider" revelations of the > Cuban Revolution's suppressed realities (in Arenas's case, of a > pervasive homosexuality that the puritanical regime tries to deny or > keep hidden; in Cabrera Infante's case, of a politically repressive > and censorious order that stops at nothing to persecute those who > publicly refuse to toe the ideological line). Gossip here becomes for > Arenas "a means of vengeance and self-assertion," and for Cabrera > Infante, a way to "directly rebut ... and ... outlast the Castro > regime's own international propaganda efforts" (p. 126). For both, > any rhetorical excess is justified if it means delegitimizing the > regime's self-image. In contrast to these writers, who as people "in > the know" seek to make their readers complicitous in their > revelations sharers, Rodríguez Navas's discussion of another Cuban > writer at odds with the regime, Antonio José Ponte, cites his > description of the tendency of Habaneros, in a city of collapsing > ruins and ambient mutual suspicion, to spy on their neighbors as > denoting "no sense of belonging or of fraternal bonds, no real > kinship: only a shared sense of loss, of paranoia" and gossip as "a > force ... that shows little concern for the freedoms lost or the > individual lives sacrificed along the way" (p. 64). Absent from > Rodríguez Navas's analysis, however, is the fact that Ponte himself, > shortly before and subsequent to his self-exile from Cuba, published > between 2002 and 2010 in the online journal _La Habana Elegante > _under the heteronym Fermín Gabor a series of hilarious, often > vicious, gossipy takedowns of prominent Cuban cultural and political > figures, collectively titled "La Lengua Suelta"--the tongue > unleashed--and which have now been published in a single massive > volume (2020). For Ponte, the ability to gossip openly is what > distinguishes life away from the "surveilled fiesta" of Cuban life. > (This can work both ways, however--I've had conversations with > defenders of the Cuban regime _à outrance_ who never hesitated to > slander individual exiles and dissidents by revealing allegedly > compromising details of their personal lives.) > > Likewise, dictatorships can make use of gossip for their own > repressive purposes; a paradigm of such "gossip states," for > Rodríguez Navas, is the Dominican Republic under the _Trujillato._ > Having already noted the absence of gossip in Haitian literature > during the Duvalier regime (and turning, with all due reservations, > to Graham Greene's outside perspective in _The Comedians_ [1966] to > find it), she turns to the "official" gossip about Rafael Leonidas > Trujillo as recounted by his successor and henchman Josquin Balaguer, > and the counter-narrative, itself nourished and sustained by gossip, > provided by Junot Díaz's _The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao > _(2007). As with her analysis of _Wide Sargasso Sea_, Rodríguez > Navas considers a widely commented-on text in a new and revelatory > light, as "an attempt to acknowledge the insufficiency of the > historical record and allow countless individual versions and private > stories, the lived experiences of the regime's victims, to flow free" > (p. 194). Gossip here becomes a way of dealing with historical trauma > and its afterlives, against the "gossip state" that slanders its > adversaries as a prelude to (or as a rationale for) their > destruction. > > Much more could be said about _Idle Talk, Deadly Talk_, but I will > close my review of this fascinating study with an example taken from > the "real world" that adds another dimension to her analysis. In > Puerto Rico, during the summer of 2019, a chat among the > then-governor Ricardo Rosselló and his inner circle was leaked; it > contained numerous scurrilous, homophobic, and contemptuous comments > on the news media, the political opposition, and some of the > governor's fellow party members: the very stuff of which the "gossip > state" is made. What followed was a massive protest movement--which > had in any case been building up for some time around a range of > issues--that ultimately led to the resignation of the governor. > Against crude official gossip, the adversarial truth of the streets > prevailed as nearly a third of the island's population came out to > express their unity in discontent. Perhaps this movement--and others > like it--point toward a way out of the pitfalls of gossip as an > oppositional strategy too readily coopted and manipulated by the > powerful. > > Citation: Christopher Winks. Review of Rodríguez Navas, Ana, _Idle > Talk, Deadly Talk: The Uses of Gossip in Caribbean Literature_. > H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. July, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54195 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
