Julie Huntington is an Assistant Professor of French at Marymount Manhattan College.

• Acknowledgments Introduction1. Rhythm and Transcultural Poetics Rhythm and Transculture Method2. Rhythm and Reappropriation in God’s Bits of Wood and The Suns of Independence Language and the Language of Music Rhythm and Reappropriation in the Novel Instrumentaliture at Work Rhythm and Transformation Ordinary and Extraordinary Rhythms3. Rhythm, Music, and Identity in L’appel des arÈnes and Ti Jean L’horizon Rhythm, Music, Subjectivity, and the Novel Rhythm and Identity in L’appel des arÈnes Rhythm and Identity in Ti Jean L’horizon Rethinking Rootedness4. Music and Mourning in Crossing the Mangrove and Solibo Magnificent Memory, Mourning, and Mosaic Identities Rhythm, Music, and Identity as Process The Sounds of Death and Mourning Configuring Rhythmic and Musically Mediated IdentitiesConcluding Remarks Works Cited Index

"Huntington’s emphasis on the interconnections of the related arts-music, poetry, fiction, oral tradition etc.-is one of the few to treat systematically, and in a sound, sophisticated theoretical and ethnographic framework, the important traits of African literary, oral and musical productions. Sounding Off will make a great contribution to the interdisciplinary study and thus provide a deeper understanding of musical and literary-artistic productions in African and diasporan communities." -Daniel Avorgbedor, Ohio State University, Columbus