Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1800–1920: Volume 1

This volume explores Caribbean literature from 1800–1920 across genres and in the multiple languages of the Caribbean.

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

9781108475884, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 January 2021

498 pages
23.5 x 16.3 x 3.3 cm, 0.85 kg

'The new and timely perspectives on migration, gender, and the environment, amongst other topics, enable this series to bring attention to an incredibly diverse canon of writers, literary forms, and historical contexts. In doing so, the volumes invite readers to revisit established figures - with Walcott and Naipaul still looming large - whilst also re-examining Caribbean literary history to include a corpus of voices that are not necessarily anglophone or male-centric. For this reason, the series deserves to lay the foundations of new critical explorations into the heterogeneity and global scope of Caribbean creativity from its roots in the colonial past through to its many fluid and fragmentary strands in the present.' Matthew Whittle, Journal of Postcolonial Writing

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF], Literary studies: general [DSB], Prose: non-fiction [DN]