Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket: C.L.R.?James’s Beyond a Boundary, by David Featherstone, Christopher Gair, Christian H?gsbjerg & Andrew Smith (eds.)

摘要

This fine collection of essays and reflections makes a significant contribution to the existing literature on Beyond a Boundary and C.L.R. James more generally. Most of the essays were first presented at a University of Glasgow conference commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of James’s book in 1963. Following a substantial introduction by the four editors, the volume is organized into four parts. Part One, “Cricket, Empire, and the Caribbean,” is concerned to place James’s work in its sociohistorical contexts. Part Two, “The Politics of Representation in Beyond a Boundary,” addresses the questions of voice, social formation, and world-view in James’s text. Part Three, “Art, History, and Culture,” takes up James’s understanding of cricket as a socioaesthetic practice and his conceptions of culture and history more broadly. Part Four, “Reflections,” features contributions—by turns discriminating, moving, and politically engaging—by Mike Brearley (astute former captain of the England team), Hilary Beckles (among the most important Caribbeanist social historians of his generation), and Selma James (whose decades of involvement in antiracist, anti-imperialist and feminist struggles have brought her global renown, and who was married to C.L.R. from 1956 to 1980).