Claude McKay's vagabond classicisms: empire, uplift, and antiquity.

This article analyzes the Jamaican writer Claude McKay's complex engagement with classicism, focusing on his novel *Banjo* and its allusion to the myth of Laocoön. McKay consistently rejected imperial power (imperium) while embracing classical knowledge and cultural traditions (studium) as tools for racial uplift and creative expression. He navigated between Euro-American hegemonic classicisms and Afrocentric appropriations, admiring ancient Greco-Roman and African civilizations without endorsing imperialist narratives. Through a "vagabond classicism," McKay selectively integrated diverse classical traditions to critique empire and affirm the potential of decolonized, heterogeneous antiquities in black cultural renaissance and anti-imperial discourse.