Table Of ContentCARIBBEAN LITERATURE IN TRANSITION,
–
The period from the s to the present day has produced an
extraordinarilyrichanddiversebodyofCaribbeanwritingthathasbeen
widely acclaimed. Caribbean Literature in Transition traces
the region’s contemporary writings across the established genres of
prose,poetry,fictionanddramaintoemergingareasofcreativenonfic
tion, memoir and speculative fiction with a particular attention on
challengingthenarrowcanonofanglophonemalewriters.Itmapsshifts
and continuities between late twentieth and early twentyfirstcentury
Caribbean literature in terms of innovations in literary form and style,
thechangingroleandplaceofthewriter,andshiftsinourunderstand
ingsofwhatconstitutesthepoliticalterrainoftheliteraryanditssitesof
struggle.Whilstreachingacrosslanguagedividesandmultiplediasporas,
it shows how contemporary Caribbean literature has focused its atten
tionsonsocialcomplexityandongoingmarginalizationsinitscontinued
preoccupationswithidentity,belongingandfreedoms.
is Associate Professor of Postcolonial Studies
in the Department of English Language and Literature at Brock
University. His work focuses on representations of marronage and
queerness in Caribbean literature. His work has been published in
Small Axe, The Journal of Postcolonial Writing, the Journal of West
Indian Literature and Transforming Anthropology. He is co editor of
the Literature Encyclopedia volume on Anglophone Writing and
Culture of Central America and the Caribbean (https://www
.litencyc.com). He has also edited Make the World New: The Poetry
ofLillian Allen ().
isProfessorofModernLiteraturesinEnglishand
HeadoftheSchoolofLiterature,DramaandCreativeWritingatthe
UniversityofEastAnglia.ShehaspublishedwidelyonCaribbeanand
Black British writings, with a particular emphasis on challenging
orthodox literary histories and recovering women’s voices. She is the
author of Twentieth Century Caribbean Literature () and
Caribbean Queer: Creolized Sexualities and the Literary Imagination in
the Anglo-Caribbean (), as well as coeditor (with Michael A.
Bucknor) of The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean
Literature (). She leads a major project funded by the
Leverhulme Trust: ‘Caribbean Literary Heritage: recovering the lost
pastandsafeguardingthefuture’.
Published online by Cambridge University Press
General Editor
AlisonDonnell, Universityof East Anglia
Caribbean Literature in Transition ambitiously redefines received ideas of this
region’s literary traditions to present a significantly expanded terrain for critical
intervention. By extending the chronology back to , before either the
Caribbean or Literature had been imagined in their present currencies, challeng
ing narrow definitions of literary production, and reaching across linguistic
divides, the critical interventions that comprise this series deliver a substantially
new framework for future study and research. Boldly inclusive, Caribbean
Literature in Transition attends to transformations in genre, language, form,
and platform as well as to the intricate creative intersections between oral,
performative and literary cultures, the intensity of cultural encounters and
exchanges that have forged creolized sensibilities, and the complex patterning of
localandglobaldiasporasthathaveremainedcentraltoCaribbeanexperienceand
havecontinuedtoshapetheproductionandreceptionofitswritings.Theessays
collected here explore how Caribbean literary history is marked by returning
creative and critical preoccupations, as well as overlapping local and global
connections inscribed by thick histories of oppression and resistance. The series
importantlyrefreshesunderstandingsofthishistoryforthetwenty firstcenturyby
drawing on the invigorating theoretical insights of Black Atlantic studies, queer
studies, eco criticism and the digital humanities, as well as historical materials
newly restored by the archival turn in Caribbean Studies. In sum, Caribbean
Literature in Transition both generates fresh approaches to familiar works and
brings overlookedand forgotten works into view.
Booksin the series
. CaribbeanLiterature inTransition,
Edited by ’ and
. CaribbeanLiterature inTransition,
Edited by and
. CaribbeanLiterature inTransition,
Edited by and
Published online by Cambridge University Press
CARIBBEAN LITERATURE
–
IN TRANSITION,
RONALD CUMMINGS
BrockUniversity
ALISON DONNELL
UniversityofEastAnglia
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Contents
List of Illustrations page viii
Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xvi
Introduction: Caribbean Assemblages, s–
RonaldCummingsand Alison Donnell
Writing and the Responsibility to Memory: The Role of White
Female Planters in Contemporary Caribbean Novels
Tanya L. Shields
Caribbean Identities and Diversifying the Creole Mix
Shivanee Ramlochan
Carnival, Calypso and Dancehall Cultures: Making the Popular
Political in Contemporary Caribbean Writing
Emily Zobel Marshall
Life Writing, Gender and Caribbean Narrative –:
Itinerant Self-Making in the Postcolonial Caribbean
Denise deCairesNarain
Forwarding Dubpoetry in This Generation: A Grassroots
Performance and Neo-Literary Genre in Transition
Susan Gingell
Postcolonial Ruins, Reconstructive Poetics: Caribbean Urban
Imaginaries
Christopher Winks
v
Published online by Cambridge University Press
vi Contents
Reimagining Caribbean Time and Space: Speculative Fiction
Rebecca Romdhani
Caribbean Drama and Performance
Justine McConnell
Here Are the Others: Caribbean Creative Nonfiction
Kei Miller
‘Let Every Child Run Wild’: Cultural Identity and the Role
of the Child in Caribbean Children’s and Young
Adult Fiction
Aisha TakiyahSpencer
Caribbean Feminist Criticism: Towards a New Canon
of Caribbean Feminist Theory and Theorizing
Simone A.James Alexander
Writing of and for a Revolution
AlisonDonnell and Nalini Mohabir
Digital Yards: Caribbean Writing on Social Media and
Other Digital Platforms
Kelly BakerJosephs
Developing and Sustaining Literary Publics: Prizes,
Festivals and New Writing
Ifeona Fulani
The Caribbean and Britain
Sarah Lawson Welsh
Acts of Trespass and Collapsing Borders: Alternate
Landscapes in Contemporary Caribbean-Canadian Literature
Camille A.Isaacs
The Caribbean and the United States
Jocelyn Fenton Stitt
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Contents vii
The Caribbean and the Tourist Gaze
Supriya M. Nair
Caribbean Subjects in the World
Kezia A.Page
Dialogic Connections in Caribbean Literature and
Visual Art
Marta Fernández Campa
From Countertextuality to Intertextuality: Continuing
the Caribbean Canon
Emily L. Taylor
Caribbean Eco-Poetics: The Categorial Imperative and
Indifference in the Caribbean Environment
Keja L. Valens
Sexual Subjects
Faizal Deen and RonaldCummings
Caribbean Literature and Literary Studies: Past, Present
and Future
Alison Donnell
Bibliography
Index
Published online by Cambridge University Press
List of Illustrations
.. Frankétienne, Untitled (). Oil on canvas. Cover image
of Ready to Burst (), English translation of Mûr à crever
() by Kaiama L. Glover. Courtesy of Frankétienne
and Archipelago Books. page
.. Sonia Farmer and Shivanee Ramlochan, The Red Thread
Cycle, Book I (). Artist book. Photo credit: Dominic
Duncombe. Courtesy of Sonia Farmer and Shivanee
Ramlochan.
.. Sonia Farmer and Shivanee Ramlochan, The Red Thread
Cycle, Book V (). Artist book. Photo credit: Jackson
Petit-Homme, The National Gallery of the Bahamas.
Courtesy of Sonia Farmer and Shivanee Ramlochan.
.. Christopher Cozier, The Castaway, from the Tropical
Night series (-present). Mixed media drawings.
Courtesy of Christopher Cozier.
.. Christopher Cozier, Hop, Skip, Jump, from the Tropical
Night series (-present). Mixed media drawings.
Courtesy of Christopher Cozier.
.. Kevin A. Browne, Tracey Sankar admonishes the
photographer, or whoever she imagines will see the
image. Photography. Port of Spain, . Courtesy
of Kevin A. Browne.
.. Kevin A. Browne, Stephanie Kanhai and Jonadiah Gonzales.
Photography. Usine-Ste. Madeline Cooling Towers,
Ste. Madeline, July . Courtesy of Kevin A. Browne.
viii
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Contributors
. is Professor of English, Africana Studies
and Women and Gender Studies, affiliate member of the Russian and
East European Studies Program and Latin America and Latino/Latina
StudiesatSetonHallUniversity,NewJersey.Alexanderistheauthorof
the award-winning book, African Diasporic Women’s Narratives: Politics
of Resistance, Survival and Citizenship (), which also received an
HonourableMentionbytheAfricanLiteratureAssociationBookofthe
YearScholarshipAward.AlexanderisalsotheauthorofMotherImagery
intheNovelsofAfro-CaribbeanWomen()andco-editorofFeminist
and Critical Perspectives on Caribbean Mothering (). Her articles
have appeared in African American Review, Anglistica: An
Interdisciplinary Journal, Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s
andGenderStudies,NewMangoSeason:AJournalofCaribbeanWomen’s
Writing, Revista Review InterAmericana, African Literature Association
Bulletin, and various edited collections. Her current book projects
include Black Freedom in (Communist) Russia: Great Expectations,
Utopian Visions and Bodies of (In)Difference: Gender, Sexuality, and
Nationhood.
ˊ , PhD, is currently Senior Research Associate
at the University of East Anglia. Her research has a comparative and
interdisciplinary focus on how contemporary Caribbean writers and
visual artists engage critically with historical memory. Her current
research examines the role of literary archives and the possibilities of
born-digital practice for the future preservation and scholarship of
Caribbean writers’ manuscripts. She has published articles, reviews
and interviews in Arc Magazine, Anthurium, Callaloo and Small Axe
and has been the recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright
Commission and the Center for the Humanities at the University
of Miami.
ix
Published online by Cambridge University Press
x List of Contributors
teaches queer and postcolonial literatures in the
department of English at Brock University. His work focuses on repre-
sentations of marronage and queerness in Caribbean literature. His
work has been published in Small Axe, the Journal of Postcolonial
Writing, the Journal of West Indian Literature and Transforming
Anthropology. He is co-editor of the Literature Encyclopedia volume on
‘Anglophone Writing and Culture of Central America and the
Caribbean’. He has also edited Make the World New: The Poetry of
Lillian Allen ().
was born in Georgetown, Guyana, and immigrated to
Canada in the late s. Faizal studied English Literature and
Language at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and is working
on a new poetry collection, The Waiting Country. In Faizal pub-
lished what became Guyana’s first LGBTQ poetry collection, Land
Without Chocolate: A Memoir, shortlisted by the Quebec Writers
Federation for the A. M. Klein Prize in Poetry. Faizal currently lives
in Ottawa.
isProfessorofModernLiteraturesinEnglishandHead
of School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at the University
ofEastAnglia.ShehaspublishedwidelyonCaribbeanandblackBritish
writings, with a particular emphasis on challenging orthodox literary
historiesand recovering women’s voices. Sheis theauthor of Twentieth
Century Caribbean Literature: Critical Moments in Anglophone Literary
and Critical History () and Creolized Sexualities: Undoing
Heteronormativity in the Literary Imagination of the Anglo-Caribbean
(), as well as co-editor (with Michael A. Bucknor) of The
Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature (). She
is the lead researcher on a major project funded by the Leverhulme
Trust: ‘Caribbean Literary Heritage: Recovering the Lost Past and
Safeguarding the Future’, www.caribbeanliteraryheritage.com.
teaches in the Global Liberal Studies Program at New
YorkUniversity.HerresearchinterestsincludeCaribbean,African,and
black British literatures and cultures, and her recent publications
include an edited volume of essays, Archipelagos of Sound:
TransnationalCaribbeanities,WomenandMusic()aswellasschol-
arlyarticlespublishedinAtlanticStudies,CaribbeanQuarterly,Frontiers:
A Journal of Women’s Studies, Small Axe and Anthurium. She is also a
creativewriterandauthorofacollectionofshortstoriestitledTenDays
Published online by Cambridge University Press
