Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1800-1920: Volume 1

by Evelyn O'Callaghan (Editor), Tim Watson (Editor)

Overview

This volume examines what Caribbean literature looked like before 1920 by surveying the print culture of the period. The emphasis is on narrative, including an enormous range of genres, in varying venues, and in multiple languages of the Caribbean. Essays examine lesser-known authors and writing previously marginalized as nonliterary: popular writing in newspapers and pamphlets; fiction and poetry such as romances, sentimental novels, and ballads; non-elite memoirs and letters, such as the narratives of the enslaved or the working classes, especially women. Many contributions are comparative, multilingual, and regional. Some infer the cultural presence of subaltern groups within the texts of the dominant classes. Almost all of the chapters move easily between time periods, linking texts, writers, and literary movements in ways that expand traditional notions of literary influence and canon formation. Using literary, cultural, and historical analyses, this book provides a complete re-examination of early Caribbean literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108475884
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/14/2021
Series:	Caribbean Literature in Transition
Pages:	498
Product dimensions:	6.42(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Evelyn O'Callaghan is Professor of West Indian Literature, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. Her published work includes articles and chapters on West Indian literature, particularly on women's writing, early Caribbean narratives and more recently, ecocritical readings of Caribbean landscapes in visual and scribal texts. She has published Woman Version: Theoretical Approaches to West Indian Fiction by Women, Women Writing the West Indies 1804–1939: A Hot Place, Belonging to Us, and edited early Caribbean novels by Frieda Cassin and Elma Napier. Most recently, she co-edited Caribbean Irish Connections and Madness in Anglophone Caribbean Literature: On the Edge. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of West Indian Literature.

Tim Watson is Professor of English at the University of Miami. He is the author of Caribbean Culture and British Fiction in the Atlantic World, 1780–1870 (2008) and Culture Writing: Literature and Anthropology in the Midcentury Atlantic World (2018). With Candace Ward, he co-edited the Broadview edition of Hamel, the Obeah Man (2010).

Table of Contents

Introduction Evelyn O'Callaghan and Tim Watson, with contributions from Marlene L. Daut; Part I. Literary and Generic Transitions: 1. Conquest Narratives Kelly Wisecup; 2. Creole Testimonies in Caribbean Women's Slave Narratives Nicole N. Aljoe; 3. Jonkanoo Performances of Resistance, Freedom, and Memory Jenna M. Gibbs; 4. Caribbean Picturesque from William Beckford to Contemporary Tourism Evelyn O'Callaghan; 5. From Novels of the Caribbean, to Caribbean Novels Candace Ward; 6. Early Caribbean Poetry and the Modern Reader John T. Gilmore; 7. Towards a West Indian Romance Poetics Rhonda Kareen Harrison; Part II. Cultural and Political Transitions: 8. John Jacob Thomas and the grammar of freedom Faith L. Smith; 9. How Barbados transformed radical British author Eliza Fenwick into a reactionary Lissa Paul; 10. Mary Seacole's travels and tales Norval (Nadi) Edwards; 11. Genealogy and nonhistory in Adolphus, A Tale RJ Boutelle; 12. Obeah, religion, and nineteenth-century literature of the Anglophone Caribbean Janelle Rodriques; Part III. The Caribbean Region In Transition: 13. Antillean Sovereignty in Pan-Caribbean Writing Marlene L. Daut; 14. Caribbean Literature as Diasporic Archive Rhonda Cobham-Sander; 15. The Representation of the Caribbean in Nineteenth-Century African American Newspapers Curdella Forbes; 16. The Impact of the American Civil War on Political Writing in Jamaica and Cuba Jonathon T. Booth; 17. South Asian Migration and Settlement Stories, 1800–1920 Atreyee Phukan; 18. Francophone-Anglophone Connections in the Nineteenth-Century Caribbean Elizabeth Kelly; 19. Cuban Literature before 1920: Antislavery, Historiography, Women's Writing, and the Nation Daylet Domínguez; 20. José Martí, José Rizal, and their Speculative Extended Caribbean Susan Gillmaz; 21. Translating the Revolution from Haiti to Louisiana Sarah Jessica Johnson; Part IV. Critical Transitions: 22. Creative Rewritings of Early Caribbean Texts Sheri-Marie Harrison; 23. Digital Restaging of Early Caribbean texts Laurie N. Taylor; 24. Lost Mothers in the Caribbean Plantation and Contemporary Black Maternal and Infant Mortality Kerry Sinanan; 25. Reading the Colonial Archive through Joscelyn Gardner's Creole Portraits I–III Melanie Otto.

Editorial Reviews

‘Caribbean Literature in Transition covers the literary, sociopolitical, and historical advancements and criticisms of Caribbean literature from 1800 to 2020 … The set's chronological arrangement yields insights about the varied availability of information over the three centuries. Transitions in coverage of gender, culture, and political movements represented in Caribbean literature are highlighted. Overall, the set is far more comprehensive than other collections on Caribbean literature, which makes the set excellent for up-to-date research … Highly recommended.’ D. M. Jarrett, Choice Connect

From the Publisher