Tchi Mbouani: Fragiles églantines

Fragiles églantines

A travers une quarantaine de poèmes, le recueil dresse le tableau d’une existence citadine, et parcourt des thèmes variés tels que le rapport au temps et les émotions face aux paysages urbains. L’œuvre se penche sur les solitudes ressenties dans un monde consumériste et dépeint les rapports souvent froids que les hommes entretiennent. Sur un ton grave mais dynamique, "Fragiles églantines" saute courageusement dans le nouveau siècle avec son lot de crises, de désenchantements, mais aussi d'aspirations. Chacun peut se sentir proche des épisodes narrés au fil des vers. En cela, l’œuvre s'inscrit solidement dans l'universel.

Tchi Mbouani Ngaliae est une auteure française d'origine camerounaise, née à Lille en 1982. Elle a grandi dans le Nord de la France où elle poursuivit des études de commerce. Tchi Mbouani a toujours été animée par une passion pour la littérature. Elle signe avec 'Fragiles églantines' sa première oeuvre publiée en langue française.

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Tchi Mbouani, a young francophone poet of Cameroon origin, born in Lille 30 years ago, has recently published her collection of poems Fragiles Églantines.  Her poetry shows her extraordinary sensitivity in an apathetic society.  A rare gem!

The volume is available at Amazon.com. Fragiles eglantines

Bosch and Freud - on Art and Madness

The rise of Renaissance started in the Low Countries – called Flanders.  Great artists appeared as the representatives of the late medieval new thinkers.  The status of artist rose from those considered as craftsman – “Mechanic artist” to a respectable free thinker, imaginative creator – “liberal Artist”.

The first of such representative was Hieronymus Bosch whose paintings of demonic figures in the guise of religious themes displayed his unbridled fantasies of the bestiality and humanity, the corruption of both human and animals, in the chaos of the world – reflecting the period in history where clashes between various continents and ideology seemed to have come to the central stage of civilization in the 15th century.  The Turkish Ottoman Empire took over the Byzantine in the 11th century and occupied S.E.Europe, the Black Death wiped out half of the European population…

Bosch, artist of the 15th century, marked a point of departure from the Dark Ages to the Age of Enlightenment.  As a northerner, with his typical dark imagination, enhanced by witch’s oil (a type of drug) he found his unique style of Gothic art – grotesque but realistic figures fornicating, gorging, binge drinking, defecating at the same time… The symbolism mingled with realistic figures created an exotic background evoking nightmarish scenes, which exist neither in “Paradise” nor in “hell”.

Freud said that man who is unhappy with reality tends to go on the path of “Regression” – hoping to reverse back to the childhood dreams in order to escape the reality and such a man becomes a neurotic individual… If he possesses artistic flair, he can transform this negative force into an ability of a genius to create great art works… 

Many people in the “Dark Ages” unhappy with the way of life resorted to heresy or hermitage or in silent self-reflection to seek answers in religious meditation.  Driven by fear or guilt, or feeling of insecurity, those who would be misfits in normal social life went on pilgrimage or retreated to deep forest in remote mountains.  Those who took refuge in austere monasteries on the top of Montserrat (Franco-Spanish border), away from the rest of the world, found solace in a life of poverty, and self-punishment.  But did they find “Redemption”?

Related post:

     L'Art, est-il la representation de la folie?

French Revolution and today's world

We can see some interesting parallels between the situation today and the pre-Revolutionary France of the late 18^th century.  Join the debate at our Forum:

Conspiracy or just the natural course of event?

End of Civilization...

Last Saturday (13/8/11)’s discussion approached the question “are we all looters?” The discussion touched upon the recent rioting in England but it veered off to the subject of “stealing” of Intellectual Properties. By drawing parallel between high street looting and breach of copyright law, our café philosophers, in fear of the censure of “political correctness,” conscientiously avoided the real topic: What is the cause of the riots?

Links:
- The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the bottom ...
- The problem is the breakdown of national identity

What shaped European civilization?

The original question proposed by Ramon « what is European civilization » was intended to define the identity of European civilization. Ramon laid out what he thought was the basis of European civilization: Christianity and Democracy.

Several opinions diverged as to whether Christianity truly represents European civilization. One opinion is that southern Europe where Catholicism prevails tends to have larger number of pious churchgoers than north-western Europe, which has been increasingly embracing secularism since the 20th century.

Another opinion stated that Christianity was not the only religion that shaped European civilization. So-called European civilization is an amalgamation of many different cultural and commercially-based identities. It was this openness to absorb many different influences from outside Europe which made European civilization so advanced in the 19th and 20th century.

Michael remarked that “from a historical perspective, violence can be a motor of civilization”. Ramon disagreed by saying that the Mongol invasion of Europe in the 13th century was definitely not a “motor of civilization”. The Mongols were “Barbarians”. I wonder what Ramon thinks of the violent history of Spanish conquest of Americas, was it driven by the "motor of civilization" or by greed for gold?  Does he think that violence committed in the name of Christianity is then no longer "Barbaric"?

Several participants pointed out that the Eurocentric view was partly to blame for the ills of the 18th and 19th centuries, namely racism, slavery and colonialism. It is therefore controversial to have any delusions of the superiority of European civilization by using Christianity as a basis or standard for European identity.

What is civilization anyway? Christian explains it denotes people living in cities, who do not have to work on land to make a living, so that they can devote their time to develop ideas.

By comparing European philosophies with ideologies from other parts of the world, I noticed one distinctive feature of European (enlightened, non-religious) thinking lies in its emphasis on individual freedom, whereas in many other parts of the world, especially in the East Asia, the traditional thoughts on the mechanism of maintaining a coherent society emphasises obedience to authority (e.g. Confucianism), or passive escapism (e.g. Buddhism), or worshipping an invisible God or several gods (most other formal religions).

Looking back in history, religion has never been the exclusive motor for the advancement of civilization. Religion is often a tool used by the State to make people not to think for themselves but to follow the doctrines from the “holy scripture.” It plays primarily the role of “brain-washer“ or “mind control”. Although religion was a source of inspiration for art and music in the early stages, it can equally act as a repressive regime that hampers social and economic progress, restricts the creativity of artists and suppresses the freedom of ideas by individuals.

Instead of flagging up Christianity as the main fibre of European civilization, Ramon should quote the Renaissance of the 16th century and the Enlightenment of the 18th century as the most important achievements of European civilization. Without these two historical movements, of which the main aims were to liberate people’s mind from the repression of religion, to break away from the authoritarian voice of the Church that ruled Europe for centuries, Europe would still be living in the Dark Ages.