Canticles I: mmxvii

Continuing the struggle against slavery and Negrophobia: dramatic monologues. The second part of Book I of The Canticles continues the dialogue – as dramatic monologues – of those who fostered the transatlantic slave trade, or who demonized the image of the Negro in the Occident; as well as those who struggled for liberation and/or anti-racism. In this work, Dante can critique Christopher Columbus and Frederick Douglass can upbraid Abraham Lincoln; Elizabeth Barrett Browning can muse on her African racial heritage and its implications for child-bearing, while Karl Marx can excoriate Queen Victoria.