Caribbean Literary Discourses on the Polyvalence of Masculinity

Abstract

though it has taken the academic community in the Caribbean, particularly those in the social sciences and the humanities, some time to begin to address the issues of masculinity and sexuality systematically, the creative writers of the region have long demonstrated abundant leadership in this regard. One should not interpret this claim to mean that men have not been talked about in the scholarly literature of the Caribbean, but a systematic and ongoing analysis of the way society shapes the construction of masculinity, as a gendered identity, had to await a different type of discursive practice that emerged in the late 1980s. Caribbean creative writers, in contrast, have been reflecting on matters of masculinity and sexuality for a very long time.1This essay seeks to examine the ways in which some Anglophone Caribbean writers skilfully map the terrain of masculinity in the region, being cognisant of the nuances of its construction, but simultaneously mindful of the shifting terrain upon which masculinity is fashioned. Emerging from this examination of the creative literature are forms of masculinity that range from the more traditional and self-assured prototypical conceptions of heterosexual masculinity (for example, Austin Clarke's Nine Men Who Laughed [1986], Samuel Selvon's The Lonely Londoners [1956], George Lamming's In the Castle of My Skin [1953] andV. S. Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas [1961]),2 to examples of less decisive practices of sexuality, and more nuanced understandings of the ways men lay claim to their manhood (such as Selvon's Turn Again Tiger [1958], Jacques Roumains Masters of the Dew [1944] and Eric Walrond's Tropic Death [1926]).3 In the process, one of the more compelling contributions of the writers is the way they return to the reader the sense of community and cultural impact on the way men view themselves, and the extent of societal influence on the way they configure masculinity. This essay traces the construction and performance of masculinity in Opal Palmer Adisa's It Begins with Tears (1997), Earl Lovelace's The Wine of Astonishment (1982), Harold Sonny Ladoo's Yesterdays (1974), and Andrew Salkey's Escape to an Autumn Pavement (1959).4Masculinity and the society's influenceThough there may appear to be no social sanctions governing male sexual behaviour in the Caribbean, the day-to-day activity of the living situation may not be entirely without some ethical constraints. In the patriarchal context of the Caribbean, sanctions against sexual licence are much less binding on the man than on the woman. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon for men to be chastised for their infidelity. In a perceptive observation, Brackette Williams, speaking about making the transition to manhood in Guyana, notes that a boy of good moral standing should not be engaged in dubious clandestine affairs: Nor should he ask for one girl and then continue to play about, 'spoiling other people's girl children'.5 It is this same type of community sanction, shaming and damage not simply to the reputation of the man, but that of his family, that generates the following stern upbraiding of Godfree from his grandmother Dahlia in It Begins with Tears:Godfree! Boy, where you is? Come here.Yes Granny.Drop you pants.But Granny . . .Boy, ah still a head taller dan you, and dere is still strength in me hand. Now drop you pants.Reluctantly, but knowing the stubbornness and strength of his grandmother, the boy complied, looking around to make sure his friends weren't in the bushes watching and laughing at him. Not in the habit of wearing underpants, he stood naked before his grandmother. She stood staring at him, assessing his manhood, then walked over to him. As Granny reached for Godfree's pride, he pulled back but her left hand on his shoulder held him firm and with her right hand she took his rod in her palm. At first she held it like something hot and delicate, then she began to feel it like one testing the ripeness of a bread-fruit, then her fingers kneaded it as if it were something dead that needed to be given life. …