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31. Beyond a Boundary.
I haven't the slightest doubt that the clash of race, caste and class did
not retard but stimulated West Indian cricket. I am equally certain that in
those years social and political passions, denied normal outlets, expressed
themselves so fiercely in cricket (and other games) precisely because they
were games. Here began my personal calvary. The British tradition soaked
deep into me was that when you entered the sporting arena you left behind
you the sordid compromises of everyday existence. Yet for us to do that we
would have had to divest ourselves of our skins. […] The class and racial
rivalries were too intense. […] Thus the cricket field was a stage on
which selected individuals played representative roles which were charged
with social significance.
C.L.R. James’s Beyond a Boundary is part
history of cricket, part history of the West Indies in the mid-twentieth
century, part autobiography, part aesthetic treatise, part historiographical
manifesto. It’s a curious book, but it’s also considered one of the best books
of sports writing ever published. Chris and Suzanne, who know very little
about cricket, are still excited to read it and talk about what James has to
say about the intersections of sport, race, colonialism, and literature.
Show Notes.
C.L.R. James: Beyond a Boundary.
[Bookshop.]
Explained: Cricket, a video
which goes over the rules of the sport (and its history since Beyond a
Boundary was published).
Beyond a Boundary, the 1976
documentary for the BBC.
Our episode on The Black Jacobins.
Our previous episode, on Vanity Fair.
Tom Brown’s School
Days.
An archive of interviews with C.L.R.
James.
James in conversation with Stuart
Hall.
A lecture by Robert A. Hill,
James’s literary executor, at a conference for the 50th anniversary of the
publication of Beyond a Boundary.
Next: Virgil, Aeneid.
[Bookshop.] (We’re linking to the
Mandelbaum translation, but read whatever translation you like.)
David Hadbawnik, trans.: Aeneid, Books I-VI.
[Bookshop.]
Enjoying our podcast? Consider supporting The Spouter-Inn on
Patreon. (Thanks!)
View all episodes
By Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Chris Piuma
4.8
3030 ratings
I haven't the slightest doubt that the clash of race, caste and class did
not retard but stimulated West Indian cricket. I am equally certain that in
those years social and political passions, denied normal outlets, expressed
themselves so fiercely in cricket (and other games) precisely because they
were games. Here began my personal calvary. The British tradition soaked
deep into me was that when you entered the sporting arena you left behind
you the sordid compromises of everyday existence. Yet for us to do that we
would have had to divest ourselves of our skins. […] The class and racial
rivalries were too intense. […] Thus the cricket field was a stage on
which selected individuals played representative roles which were charged
with social significance.
C.L.R. James’s Beyond a Boundary is part
history of cricket, part history of the West Indies in the mid-twentieth
century, part autobiography, part aesthetic treatise, part historiographical
manifesto. It’s a curious book, but it’s also considered one of the best books
of sports writing ever published. Chris and Suzanne, who know very little
about cricket, are still excited to read it and talk about what James has to
say about the intersections of sport, race, colonialism, and literature.
Show Notes.
C.L.R. James: Beyond a Boundary.
[Bookshop.]
Explained: Cricket, a video
which goes over the rules of the sport (and its history since Beyond a
Boundary was published).
Beyond a Boundary, the 1976
documentary for the BBC.
Our episode on The Black Jacobins.
Our previous episode, on Vanity Fair.
Tom Brown’s School
Days.
An archive of interviews with C.L.R.
James.
James in conversation with Stuart
Hall.
A lecture by Robert A. Hill,
James’s literary executor, at a conference for the 50th anniversary of the
publication of Beyond a Boundary.
Next: Virgil, Aeneid.
[Bookshop.] (We’re linking to the
Mandelbaum translation, but read whatever translation you like.)
David Hadbawnik, trans.: Aeneid, Books I-VI.
[Bookshop.]
Enjoying our podcast? Consider supporting The Spouter-Inn on
Patreon. (Thanks!)
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