Anglophone Caribbean Literature Research Articles

The art of failure in Jean Rhys's Voyage in the Dark and Una Marson's The Moth and the Star

ABSTRACT Though both writers migrated from the Caribbean and lived at the same time in England in the 1930s, Jean Rhys (1890–1979) and Una Marson (1905–1965) did not run in the same circles – or know of each other. Marson's poetry and plays emerge from her anticolonial, feminist political commitments while Rhys has often been read as an isolated figure in modernist and Caribbean literary histories. They each had a complicated relationship to both European modernism and to mid-twentieth-century Anglophone Caribbean literature. Rhys and Marson have been put in implicit conversation in the wake of the new modernist studies because they are uneasily positioned within familiar canons of twentieth-century literature. Importantly, as this article argues, both writers also focus on failure – personal, aesthetic, and political – in their key works exploring migration in the 1930s – Rhys's novel Voyage in the Dark (1934) and Marson's poetry collection The Moth and the Star (1937). Failure in these texts is double sided, recasting personal and aesthetic failure as the failure of dominant narratives to recognize their characters. Reading these texts together, this article argues that late colonial women writers at once registered and challenged dominant conceptions of failure in their reconstruction of inherited forms.

“림보의 침묵”: 카마우 브래스웨이트(Kamau Brathwaite)의 아프리카-카리브 시학

Mainly due to the colonial history that the Caribbean archipelago has experienced, the Caribbean studies has grown into a competent field of study that can open a new horizon of humanities. The Babadian Kamau Brathwaite is often regarded as one of the major authors of Anglophone Caribbean literature. It is true, however, that he has been treated as a peripheral figure compared with such big names like Derek Walcott, George Lamming, and Wilson Harris. This study is suggested as a reminder that he is no longer a minor voice but rather a revolutionary figure in terms of modern Caribbean literature. Brathwaite has investigated the question of cultural identity mobilizing such loaded terms as creolization, tidalectics, and nation language. In his poems Brathwaite intended to celebrate the power of language that the American creole has inherited and retrieve the African legacy melted in the language. Analyzing some key poems in Arrivants and Middle Passage, this study is trying to identify the ways in which Brathwaite traces the question of cultural identity through the lens of Africa and linguistic experiments. (The Catholic University of Korea)

Racialized Visions: Haiti and the Hispanic Caribbean ed. by Vanessa K. Valdés

Reviewed by: Racialized Visions: Haiti and the Hispanic Caribbean ed. by Vanessa K. Valdés Gabriel Bámgbóṣé (bio) Vanessa K. Valdés, editor. Racialized Visions: Haiti and the Hispanic Caribbean. SUNY, 2020, Pp. 275. US $95 (hardcover) / $24.95 (paper). One of the most powerful elements of Vanessa K. Valdés' scholarship is the incisive comparative lens she deploys, one which reimagines the Black literary and cultural geographies of the Americas. Her monograph, Oshun's Daughters: The Search for Womanhood in the Americas, is a clear example of how this approach advances a greater understanding of the contributions of peoples of African descent in the imagination of the Americas. In the same vein, Valdés' recent edited collection, Racialized Visions: Haiti and the Hispanic Caribbean, uses this comparative perspective to rethink the place of Haiti in the Hispanic Caribbean space, with broad implications for resituating the historical meanings and cultural significance of Haiti in the Americas. The contributor Mariana Past articulates the main problem twelve diverse scholars engage with in the collection: "Haiti, independent since 1804—and whose original constitutions abolished slavery and guaranteed universal liberty to all citizens of Hispaniola, who were defined as free, equal, and Black—remains a perpetual outlier in the Caribbean context" (161). Thus, questioning the racialized othering of Haitians in the Caribbean imagination, the collection argues that, notwithstanding the disavowal of Haiti's Blackness, its revolutionary history and culture play a central role in the symbolic and material envisioning of decolonial struggle against multiple colonialities in the Americas. In her preface to the collection, Myriam Chancy notes that, despite the linguistic differences among the Caribbean nations, their "makeup and realities have overlapped and cannot truly be understood fully without one another" (xiv). The quest to map out these overlapping realities and histories of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico is at the center of the collection's eleven chapters. Each chapter explores different but related dimensions of Haiti's fundamental yet denigrated influence on the Caribbean imagination through compelling critical analyses of fictional narratives, poems, short stories, historical texts, and films. Valdés' introduction situates the collection in the problematic of the field, posing the crucial question of how to reread Haiti and its complex relationship with other nations in the Hispanic Caribbean, whereas most studies have often concentrated on Haiti's representations in Anglophone Caribbean literature (15). Valdés contextualizes three key moments that the collection evocatively interrogates and that [End Page 177] signify the tragic consequences of anti-Haitian sentiments: the 1937 massacre of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent in the Haitian-Dominican border under the dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo (1930–1961); the 2010 earthquake that foregrounded the racialized perception of Haiti as a space of disaster; and the 2013 law instituted by the Dominican Republic Constitutional Tribunal that stripped many Dominicans of Haitian descent born between 1929 and 2007 of their citizenship. Six chapters focus on the problematic relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic; they critique the colonial racialization of geography and Blackness/Africanness that produces the border tension within the island of Hispaniola. In "The Border of Hispaniola in Historical and Fictional Imaginations since 1791," Claudy Delné's sharp analysis of Jacques Stephen Alexis' General Sun, My Brother, René Philoctète's Massacre River, and Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones shows how Haitian writers articulate the experience of border crossing as simultaneously tragic and liberating. Ángela Castro's chapter focuses on the same Danticat novel through a symptomatic reading of time, trauma, and the repetition of historical violence on the Hispaniola border. Drawing attention to Junot Díaz's figuration of implicit "Haitianism" in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Mohwanah Fetus' chapter reads the historical trauma and violence in the novel through the lens of the cane field racialized as "a 'Haitian space' in the Trujillo's nation-state" (211). Carrie Gibson's chapter, "The Dictator's Scapegoat," turns to conservative Dominican historians' ideological roles in propagating the anti-Haitian discourse that occurred during the Trujillo regime. By analyzing Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi's historical writing, Gibson demonstrates how the production of historical texts legitimizes anti-Haitian and anti...

Uncovering environmental and sustainability education themes in Caribbean secondary education certificate (CSEC) English literature

An examination of school curriculum documents which guide teaching in Caribbean schools indicate that while some efforts have been made to infuse ESE into some subjects, very little progress has been made in incorporating it into the teaching of English. One pedagogical technique to address this situation is ecocriticism. The authors conducted ecocritical analyses of two selections of West Indian prose: For the Life of Laetitia (Hodge 1993) and Breath, Eyes, Memory (Danticat 1994), from the current CSEC English Literature syllabus to unearth the ESE themes in these works and the implications of such analyses for the teaching of ESE. In addition to the conclusion that both prose selections contain ample opportunities for the teaching of ESE within the specific subject, the study indicates that within anglophone Caribbean literature a palpable richness exists that can deepen environmental and sustainability education more broadly. Pedagogical and curricular implications along with practical advice for doing ecocritical readings are discussed.

Magic and Identity in Anglophone and Hispanaphone Caribbean Literature

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, literature in the Caribbean underwent a period of significant development. The word “Caribbean” encompasses such a vast cultural, locational, and linguistic span that it is difficult to make generalizations about trends in the literature produced during this period. As a result, the contrast between Hispanophone and Anglophone Caribbean literature has not been thoroughly investigated. In this essay, I will compare and contrast themes from “Viaje a la Semilla” by Cuban author Alejo Carpentier, “Do Angels Wear Brassieres?” by Jamaican author Olive Senior, and “Pressure Drop” by Jamaican author Oku Onuora. I will also briefly discuss works by Afro-Cuban author Nicolás Guillén and Saint Lucian Derek Walcott. Aspects of these works—such as intended audience, political and social influences, and linguistic form—are investigated. Additionally, Caribbean literature is analyzed through the lens of magical realism. The throughline of this study is whether thematically metaphysical questions of belonging which have been attributed to Caribbean literature by previous scholars are maintained in both linguistic traditions. The import of this literature to explore and maintain cultural byways in the face of a diasporic experience is emphasized.

The BBC and the Development of Anglophone Caribbean Literature, 1943–1958, by Glyne A. Griffith

The BBC and the Development of Anglophone Caribbean Literature, 1943–1958, by Glyne A. Griffith

Islands in the Air: Travelling by Plane in Anglophone Caribbean Literature

Although airports figure prominently in contemporary Caribbean life, literary responses to this space are less common than one might expect. This article explores why many Caribbean migration narratives actively avoid the airport, revealing how this becomes a strategy to negate tourists’ take-over of Caribbean space. Yet this article argues that developing a Caribbean perspective on the airport is vital because it provides insight into the larger forces reshaping Caribbean space in the twenty-first century. The article examines the history of small island airports and their connections to the tourism industry and the formation of the postcolonial nation state. This history frames the analysis of Caribbean diasporic texts by Jamaica Kincaid, Earl Lovelace, Dionne Brand, and Makeda Silvera. Each of these authors grapples with the rise in air travel in the Caribbean in the 1980s, due to cheaper fares and increased routes, and reclaim the airport as an important site of creative transformation and political critique for diasporic Caribbean identity.

“Polish Up Yourself and Be No Drag:” The Joy and Jeopardy of Reading Anglophone Caribbean Literature in Translation

Przekładaniec » 2018 - (Post)colonial Translation » “Polish Up Yourself and Be No Drag:” The Joy and Jeopardy of Reading Anglophone Caribbean Literature in Translation A A A

Beyond Windrush: Rethinking Postwar Anglophone Caribbean Literature ed. by J. Dillon Brown and Leah Reade Rosenberg

Beyond Windrush: Rethinking Postwar Anglophone Caribbean Literature ed. by J. Dillon Brown and Leah Reade Rosenberg

Three Generations of Women: The Star Side of Bird Hill – Interview with Naomi Jackson

NAOMI JACKSON'S NOVEL THE STAR SIDE OF BIRD HILL (New York: Penguin, 2015) was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Debut Fiction, and longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize and the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. It won Late Night Library's Debut-litzer prize, was named an Honor Book for Fiction by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and was selected for the American Booksellers Association's Indies Introduce and Indies Next List programmes.The Star Side of Bird Hill examines the life of two sisters, Phaedra, ten, and Dionne, sixteen, who are sent to Barbados to spend time with their grandmother Hyacinth as a result of their mother's depression and inability to care for them. The novel examines many social issues and cultural motifs, and shows how both sisters deal with their new environment, but in particular, their relationship with their grandmother.Born and raised in Brooklyn by West Indian parents, Naomi Jackson considers herself a pan-Caribbean mongrel as her mother is from Barbados, her father from Antigua, and she has a Jamaican stepmother. As a child, Naomi spent several summers in Barbados, and says all of these places influenced who she is as a writer. Jackson studied fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and received her MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. A recipient of residencies and fellowships, including Bread Loaf, MacDowell Colony, and Djerassi, Naomi Jackson was a visiting writer at Amherst College in Fall 2016.1The following interview took place in June 2016 via the internet.OPA: Although The Star Side of Bird Hill can be said to be a coming-of-age novel, the story is not simply about Dionne. It is as much about her mother Avril, little sister Phaedra and grandmother Hyacinth. Why did you decide to have a community of women as the protagonists?NJ: Thanks so much for noting the fact that Star Side features not just one protagonist but instead a family of women. The novel is told in a close third-person perspective that switches from the younger sister Phaedra to her older sister Dionne to their grandmother Hyacinth; Avril can be said to be a shadow protagonist, as the story is never told from her perspective, but we do experience her through the lens of her family's experiences of her. I am committed to telling stories that employ a broad perspective, reaching beyond one individual's experience in order to tell a more complete, complex story of a family, a church, a district, an island, a community.OPA: Most of Caribbean literature portrays the strong, almost invincible mother, but your mother is the opposite. She is neither strong nor caring. In fact, she emotionally and physically abandons her children, and they have to take care of her as well as fend for themselves. Where does your portrayal of this fragile, depressed, psychologically incapable Caribbean mother reside within the popular existing frame of Caribbean motherhood? What space does it open and how does it reframe Caribbean motherhood?NJ: It's true that the mother in my novel is quite different than the mothers we have seen in anglophone Caribbean literature. That said, I think she bears some traits in common with the mothers in Jamaica Kincaid's novels, especially Annie John, which had a profound influence upon me as a child and continues to inform my writing today. I disagree, however, with your characterisation of Avril as neither strong nor caring. I worked on crafting a mother character in whom readers would recognise resilience as well as fragility, neglect as well as tenderness. Avril, as I imagined her, is a person with a mental illness who has the best intentions for raising her children, but whose struggles eventually get the better of her. I hope that readers will witness her journey with compassion, and that Avril offers a different model of motherhood that is a reflection of an underrepresented reality of Caribbean mothers who toil in the face of considerable obstacles to their wellness. …

Beyond Windrush: Rethinking Postwar Anglophone Caribbean Literature, edited by J. Dillon Brown & Leah Reade Rosenberg

Beyond Windrush: Rethinking Postwar Anglophone Caribbean Literature, edited by J. Dillon Brown & Leah Reade Rosenberg

Natural Histories of Social Bodies: Rethinking Caribbean and Victorian Realisms

This essay examines a shared practice of mimetic yet pliable realism across the Victorian and postcolonial divide. It offers close readings of George Lamming’s Season of Adventure (1960) and George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda (1876) to argue that the authors similarly conceptualize as well as enact a realist project of depicting the complexities of the everyday amid questions of spiritual experience, political commitment, and the ethics of the aesthetic. Ultimately, the essay shows that realism entails a self-conscious representational project for both Lamming and Eliot—a formal and political intersection that unexpectedly bridges twentieth-century Anglophone Caribbean literature to its Victorian antecedent.

Refashioning Caribbean Literary Pedagogy in the Digital Age

Our critical momentDIGITAL TECHNOLOGY HAS MADE THE EARLY TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY a critical moment of opportunity but also of responsibility for scholars of Caribbean literature. Digital archives and recent reprints have provided access to Caribbean literary texts dating back to the nineteenth century and, thus, have supported a paradigm-shifting expansion of the corpus of Caribbean literature commonly taught and studied. Further, historical newspapers, photographs, memoirs and postcards from the region are being digitised - many are available open-access to the public. These archival materials illuminate the significance this literature held in its original political, social and cultural contexts, and shed light as well on its aesthetics. Further, digital technology is providing new means of analysing literature (such as visualisation and data mining), of presenting literary scholarship (such as curated digital exhibits and websites), and of teaching (online and hybrid courses). Together, these have the promise of bridging institutional and geographic barriers, enabling us to teach and research this expanded body of Caribbean literature in a collaborative interdisciplinary and international digital space.Paradoxically, digital technology is also reproducing colonial hierarchy and marginalising Caribbean literature. Digitising archival materials has the potential both to reproduce and to redress gaps and biases of colonial archives. A similar paradox pertains to digital technology. US government and corporate entities dominate the administration of the internet and an Anglo-American 'technocultural bias' shapes its language, services, and instruments. Anglo-American scholars and institutions dominate digital humanities as well.1 US and British authors, particularly white ones, have a strong web presence and large-scale digital archives and scholarly editions dedicated to them. By contrast, Caribbean authors lack such digital humanities projects, and the resulting marginal position of Caribbean literature on the internet threatens its ability to endure.2 Alex Gil argues compellingly that if Caribbean literature is not made digitally accessible, and if few scholarly editions exist and little digital scholarship, Caribbean authors are at risk of disappearing in the digital age.3Thus, as it opens new horizons, the digital age places significant responsibility on scholars to redress the marginalisation of Caribbean literature and to ensure its future. This article describes how one group of scholars, librarians and students - in the United States and the Caribbean - collaboratively designed a course that began to address this challenge. It is also an invitation to join us in building on that project to create an open-access teaching and research commons to sustain Caribbean literature through and beyond the twenty-first century.Teaching with the archiveWhen a small group of scholars started to plan the course in 2012 we had more modest goals. I taught at the University of the Florida which served as the technological hub for the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) and since 2007 had helped to build its collection in Anglophone Caribbean literature. Established in 2004, dLOC (www.dloc.com) is an open-access, non-profit, international partnership of over forty libraries, archives, universities and NGOS in the Caribbean, US, and Europe that houses Caribbean library and archival materials with the goals of preservation and access - and the inclusion of Caribbean materials in school and university curricula. As a non-commercial and nonexclusive association, dLOC facilitates collaboration with multiple institutions and works to provide a socio-technical infrastructure for Caribbean studies.In 2012, dLOC had amassed a significant collection of early Anglophone Caribbean literature and cultural journals, including the early poetry of Claude McKay and Una Marson, nearly all of Herbert de Lisser's oeuvre, the Jamaica Journal, Kyk-Over-Al, and Tapia. …

Jamaica’s Difficult Subjects: Negotiating Sovereignty in Anglophone Caribbean Literature and Criticism, written by Sheri-Marie Harrison

Jamaica’s Difficult Subjects: Negotiating Sovereignty in Anglophone Caribbean Literature and Criticism, written by Sheri-Marie Harrison

Fighting Madness, Making Caribbeanness: Kelly Baker Josephs's <i>Disturbers of The Peace: Representations of Madness in Anglophone Caribbean Literature</i>

Fighting Madness, Making Caribbeanness: Kelly Baker Josephs's <i>Disturbers of The Peace: Representations of Madness in Anglophone Caribbean Literature</i>

Jamaica's difficult subjects: negotiating sovereignty in anglophone Caribbean literature and criticism

Jamaica's difficult subjects: negotiating sovereignty in anglophone Caribbean literature and criticism

Disturbers of the Peace: Representations of Madness in Anglophone Caribbean Literature, written by Kelly Baker Josephs

Disturbers of the Peace: Representations of Madness in Anglophone Caribbean Literature, written by Kelly Baker Josephs

Teaching Anglophone Caribbean Literature ed. by Supriya M. Nair (review)

Teaching Anglophone Caribbean Literature ed. by Supriya M. Nair (review)

Disturbers of the Peace: Representations of Madness in Anglophone Caribbean Literature by Kelly Baker Josephs (review)

Disturbers of the Peace: Representations of Madness in Anglophone Caribbean Literature by Kelly Baker Josephs (review)

Disturbers of the Peace: Representations of Madness in Anglophone Caribbean Literature. Kelly Baker Josephs.

Disturbers of the Peace: Representations of Madness in Anglophone Caribbean Literature. Kelly Baker Josephs.