Kae Tempest and 'Brand New Ancients' Flashcards
Q: Why is cultural power difficult to democratise?
A: Elites resist giving it up; exclusion drives people to seek belonging in other communities.
Q: Who is Kae Tempest?
A: South London poet, rapper, performer; fuses rap and poetry; connects modern life to classical myths.
Q: How does Tempest’s Proem differ from traditional epics?
Partly social commentary and satire but with a narrative arc that aspires to epic:
* Invokes the audience, not a muse
* Blends classical myth with modern life
* Everyday lives/ struggles—addiction, broken families—become new mythologies.
* Honors South London communities as sources of everyday mythic wisdom.
Q: How does Tempest view the 21st-century human condition?
As a continuation of ancient myth: ordinary people remain heroic and tragic.
Q: What does Tempest say about the nature of humanity across time?
A: Humans are historic and fundamentally the same across eras, with the same ironies and mythic patterns.
Q: What ideas from Jung and Blake influence Tempest?
Jung: Loss of myth causes modern inner division.
Blake: Deities live within human beings.
Q: What is Tempest’s “bardic persona”?
Mixes scholarly references with casual language; values performance over elitism.
Celebrity
How does Tempest comment upon class?
Power and divinity are found in all people, not just the elite or celebrity figures. Shouldn’t idolise celebrities, insead celebrate raw humanity and small, real acts of everyday heroism.
Q: What question is raised about mythical heroes in Brand New Ancients?
A: Whether we should pedestalise mythical heroes, when their heroism depends on specific historical context. In another era, Roadmen who fight for now cause could have been seen as heroic warriors or soldiers.
Q: Why is performance crucial to Tempest’s work?
A: Reflects ancient oral traditions; performances adapt and change the text.
What are the two main narrative strands?
- Two families, linked by an adulterous affair that produced a child that is now being raised by a non-biological father.
- The friendship between two troubled boys, Spider and Clive, as they grow up in south-east London, where Tempest herself grew up.
Q: How are Kevin and Jane depicted mythically?
A: Kevin quietly keeps vows; Jane’s affair and guilt are treated with tragic weight
Q: What transformation does Terry undergo?
A: Becomes “Spider”— after expressing desire to help people when he grows up, Clive sets a fire in his bin that causes a spider-like scar on his face. This transformation subverts heroic ideals of violence, showing how modern violence corrupts real heroism. Alludes to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where trauma often transforms characters into animals or trees – here, into a symbolic creature rather than a mythic one.
Q: How is Gloria a modern mythic figure?
A: A “Brand New Penelope”; resilient, human, but broken by violence.
Who is echoed in the friendship between Spider and Clive?
Achilles and Patroclus
