The Caribbean

Introduction

Kwame Dawes’ collection of poetry, Wheels, encompasses the guiding ethos that drives the Caribbean literature and literary criticism offerings comprising this year’s list – that is, the introspective examination of the upheaval, chaos, fractures and, at times, destruction, that have marked and plagued Caribbean society both home and abroad during this century. For Dawes, the exploration of this turmoil through language serves as a starting place – or, at the least, as an attempt to understand the world we inhabit. This is an important feature of his work, as it seems to suggest that to understand the contemporary issues that are plaguing the Caribbean, one must understand the issues that are plaguing the world. In this regard, Wheels, much like the Caribbean, is global at its core. At times, the voices that inhabit the poems appear to be dissonant and random: a victim of the Lockerbie bombing, an Ethiopian emperor lamenting the death of a valued servant, a Rastafarian struggling to be accepted in his adopted home of Ethiopia, a reflection on the significance of the election of Barack Obama, a Haitian grappling with the loss of everything familiar. The composition of the collection of poems seems equally dissonant and random. In addition to the varied subjects and locations, the sequences are framed by passages from the Book of Ezekiel, images from Gabriel Garcia Marquez and contemporary media; conversations with a postmodernist landscape artist from South Carolina, and Rastafarianism in Ethiopia. And while these sequences seem disjunctive, at the heart of the collection is the Caribbean. The most comprehensive sequence addresses the situation in Haiti after the earthquake, and the collection ends where it began – in the streets of Kingston, Jamaica. While Dawes shares other authors’ concern with the ills that plague contemporary Caribbean society, he does not seek to provide answers. Rather, confusion takes centrestage in his attempt to illuminate the upheavals of society through the exploration of language.

It is fitting to begin this discussion with Dawes’ collection of poetry, as collections by both veteran writers and new and upcoming poets feature prominently in this year’s offerings. These authors include Loretta Collins Klobah, Fawzia Kane, Una Marson, Shara McCallum, Elma Napier, and Geoffrey Philip. Klobah won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in poetry for her collection The Twelve-Foot Neon Woman. The titular character takes on the problems of urban life, which is set to the background of music genres such as salsa, reggae and jazz and languages such as English, Spanish, and Patois. As she observes the aggressive urban world around her, she laments those who have been annihilated, lost, or forgotten while acknowledging and turning to the healing properties of nature and the spirit world, suggesting the need for a cultural metamorphosis. Una Marson: Selected Poems brings together in one collection her most noteworthy poems. In addition to Marson’s better-known works, Una Marson includes unpublished poems written between the 1930s and 1950s. It highlights her seminal role in articulating issues of gender and racial oppression in the Caribbean as well as her use of Jamaican vernacular. Geoffrey Philip’s Dubwise employs the metaphor of “Dub”, a Jamaican musical invention that embraces urban life, to engage concerns of family, migration, home, and loss in contemporary Caribbean society.

Significant strides have also been made to recover and reintroduce into circulation writings that have long been unavailable but seminal to the foundations of Caribbean literature and anti-colonial and nationalist discourses. Andrew Salkey’s Drought, Earthquake, Hurricane, and Riot; Austin C. Clarke’s The Survivors of the Crossing, Amongst Thistles and Thorns; Earl Lovelace’s While Gods Are Falling; George Lamming’s Of Age and Innocence; and Wilson Harris’s The Eye of the Scarecrow have been republished in Peepal Tree Press’s Caribbean Modern Classics series as part of this continued effort. Earl Lovelace’s novel Is Just a Movie is one of the most highly anticipated books on the list. It is his first novel since the 1996 publication of Salt, winner of the Commonwealth Prize and of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in fiction and the first ever Grand Prize for Caribbean Literature. Is Just a Movie follows the everyday experiments of Trinidadian townsfolk, after the failed Black Power Rebellion of 1970, as they experience moments of magic and rebellion in their everyday lives that help to reshape and redefine their postcolonial identities. The list’s fiction also includes novels by Opal Adisa Palmer, Keith Jardin, Elma Napier, and Alecia McKenzie as well as others. Keith Jardim’s Near Open Water provides an unflinching look at the contemporary realties of the Caribbean through dark stories of crime and violence that plague both the ruler and the ruled. In a chaotic world that is threatening to self-destruct, everyone, including the state, is culpable. However, much like Klobah’s Neon Woman, the book looks to nature as a healing source.

While much of the fiction offerings focus on the turbulent climate of the contemporary Caribbean, the criticism approaches these topics by emphasizing the importance of examining how Caribbean writers have engaged the ever-changing political, social, and economic moorings of the region over time in order to pave the way for the innovative approaches to Caribbean literature that are exemplified in this list. In Caribbean Literature and the Public Sphere, Ralph Dalleo revisits the work of Mary Seacole, Claude McKay, George Lamming, and others to construct an innovative literary history which posits that changes to political, economic, and social structures have created new opportunities for writers to imagine their relationship to the public sphere in relation to globalization. The criticism offerings also make significant contributions to the field of Caribbean Literary Studies. Mark McWatt’s The Caribbean Short Story is the most comprehensive study of its kind. The collection of essays explores the pivotal role the Caribbean short story has played in cultural production during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature, edited by Michael A. Bucknor and Alison Donnell, traces key figures as well as literary and critical history in Anglophone Caribbean literature. It also examines new perspectives on long-standing and vexed discourses as well as new approaches to literary criticism such as eco-criticism and queer studies.

In Color Me English, Caryl Phillips reflects on the impact that the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre have had on discourses concerning race, culture and belonging, not only in the US but around the world. He explores poignant moments throughout his life, stretching back to his childhood and including a moving personal account of 9/11. Like many authors who have grappled with colonial histories, contemporary migrations, and cultural intersections, Phillips seeks to understand our society more clearly.

Bibliography

Poetry

Dawes, Kwame Wheels 128pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) ₤10.99.

Klobah, Loretta The Twelve-Foot Neon Woman 102pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) ₤8.99.

Kane, Fawzia Tantie Diablesse Waterloo Press (East Sussex) ₤10.00.

Marson, Una Una Marson Selected Poems 164pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £10.99.

McCallum, Shara New and Selected Poems 140pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) ₤9.99.

—– This Strange Land 80pp Alice James Books (Farmington) $19.95.

Philip, Geoffrey Dub Wise 72pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £8.99.

Fiction

Brown, Wayne The Scent of the Path and Other Stories 384pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £14.99.

Clarke, Austin C Amongst Thistles and Thorns 208pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £8.99.

—– The Survivors Crossing 240pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £9.99.

Collins, Merle Angel 320pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £12.99.

—– The Ladies Are Upstairs 160pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £8.99.

Harris, Wilson The Eye of the Scarecrow 112pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £9.99.

Lamming, George Of Age and Innocence 436pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £14.99.

Lovelace, Earl Is Just a Movie 355pp Faber & Faber (London) £12.99.

—– While Gods Are Falling 256pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £10.99.

Jardin, Keith Near Open Water 168pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) ₤8.99.

Napier, Elma A Flying Fish Whispered 246pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) ₤9.99.

McKenzie, Alecia Sweetheart 138pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £8.99.

McWatt, Tessa Vital Signs 176pp William Heineman (London) ₤12.99.

Palmer, Opal Adisa Painting away Regrets 358pp Peepal Tree Press (Leeds) ₤12.99.

Salkey, Andrew Drought 122pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £6.99.

—– Earthquake 106pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £6.99.

—– Hurricane 102pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £6.99.

—– Riot 172pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £7.99.

Anthologies

South of South ed Nii Ayikwei Parkes 248pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) ₤9.99.

The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature 2752pp W. W. Norton & Company (New York) $59.95.

Criticism

General Studies

Caribbean Literature and the Public Sphere: From the Plantation to the Postcolonial Raphael Dalleo 320pp Univ of Virginia Press (Charlottesville) $29.50.

The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives Mark McWatt 360pp Peepal Tree (Leeds) £19.99.

Creole Testimonies: Slave Narratives from the British West Indies, 1709-1838 Nicole N. Aljoe 198pp Palgrave Macmillan $80.

The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature ed Michael A. Bucknor and Alison Donnell 674pp Routledge (New York) $185.

Sex and the Citizen: Interrogating the Caribbean ed Faith Smith 336pp Univ of Virgina Press (Charlottesville) $35pb.

“Sex, Silence, and Colonial Violence: The Amnesiac White Women of ‘Witchbroom’” Rachel Mordecai The Journal of West Indian Literature 20(1).

“Yam, Roots, and Rot: Allegories of the Provision Grounds” Elizabeth DeLoughrey Small Axe 15(34).

Studies on Individual Writers

Brand, Dionne “Dionne Brand and a Poetics of Diasporic Domestic Radicalism” Alexis Gumbs The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

Brathwaite, Kamau “ancient and very modem: Realizing Kamau Brathwaite’s Dreamstories” Elaine Savory The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives pp312-328 [see General Criticism].

—– “Kamau Brathwaite: Grounded in the Past, Revisioning the Present” Elaine Savory The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

Brodber, Erna “Erna Brodber and a Poetics of Redemption” Antonia Macdonald The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

Carew, Jan “‘When You Take Thing out the Earth and You En’t Put Nothing Back’”: Nature, Form and the Metabolic Rift in Jan Carew’s Black Midas” Michael Niblett Sage 46(2).

Cliff, Michelle “Michelle Cliff: The Unheard Music” Isabel Hoving The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

—– “Representations of History in Michelle Cliff’s and Patrick Chamoiseau’s Novels” Veronique Maisier The Journal of West Indian Literature 20(1).

Goodison, Lorna “Simply There: Lorna Goodison’s Gardens” Mac Fenwick Sage 46(3).

Glissant, Édouard “Always Changing, While Still Remaining: A Tribute to Édouard Glissant” Celia Britton Small Axe 15(36).

—– “Édouard Glissant: The Poetics of Risk” J. Michael Dash Small Axe 15(36).

—– “Lamentin” Kamau Brathwaite Small Axe 15(36).

Harris, Wilson “Understanding the Language of the Imagination: The Fiction of Wilson Harris” Mark McWatt The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

Hopkinson, Nalo “Boundary Crossing and Shapeshifting: Nalo Hopkin’s Diasporic, Speculative Short Stories” Gina Whisker The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives pp218-232 [see General Criticism].

James, C.L.R. “A Thorn in the Side of Great Britain”: C.L.R. James and the Caribbean Labour Rebellions of the 1930s” Christian Høgsbjerg Small Axe 15(35).

—– “C.L.R. James’s Twentieth Century Literary Journeys” Aaron Kamugisha The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

—– “The Hearts of Men? Gender in the Late C.L.R. James” Aaron Kamugisha Small Axe 15(34).

Khan, Ismith “Tracing Significant Footsteps: Ismith Khan and the Indian-Caribbean Short Story” Abigail Ward The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives pp95-109 [see General Criticism].

Lamming, George “The Revolutionary Poetics of George Lamming” Sandra Pouchet Paquet The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

Lovelace, Earl “The Poetics and Politics of Earl Lovelace’s Fiction” John Thieme The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

Melville, Pauline “The Marvellous and the Real in Pauline Melville’s The Migration of Ghosts” Patricia Murray The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives pp233-250 [see General Criticism].

Miller, Kei “Reading Revival Sounds: Kei Miller’s ‘The Last Warner Woman’” Amorella Lamount The Journal of West Indian Literature 20(1).

Mootoo, Shani “‘Courting Strangeness’: Queerness and Diaspora in Out on Main Street and He Drown She in the Sea Emily L. Taylor Journal of West Indian Literature 19(2).

—– “In Her Own Words: Shani Mootoo on Migration, Writing and the Human Spirit” Caryn Rae Adams Journal of West Indian Literature 19(2).

—– “Multisensory Poetics and Politics in Shani Mootoo’s The Wild Woman in the Woods and Valmiki’s Daughter” Donna McCormack Journal of West Indian Literature 19(2).

—– “Politicising Paradise: Sites of Resistance in Cereus Blooms at Night” Lorna Burns Journal of West Indian Literature 19(2).

—– “(Un)Manacled Sexuality: Shani Mootoo’s Cereus Blooms at Night” as a Queer Bildunsgroman?” Eddie Whyte Journal of West Indian Literature 19(2).

—– “Reading through Shame: Shani Mootoo’s Cereus Blooms at Night” Rebecca Ashworth Journal of West Indian Literature 19(2).

Naipaul, Seepersad “‘To see oursels as others see us!’: Seepersad Naipaul, Modernity and the Rise of the Trinidadian Short Story” James Procter The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives pp155-168 [see General Criticism].

Naipaul, V.S. “‘A Kind of Chain’: Reworking the Short Story Sequence in V.S. Naipaul’s A Way in the World” Lucy Evans The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives pp284-298 [see General Criticism].

—– “V.S. Naipaul: Writer as Critic” Nicholas Laughlin The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

Philip, Marlene NourbeSe “This Space/Dis/Place Between: The Poetics and Philosophy of Body, Voice and Silence in the Work of Marlene NourbeSe Philip” Curdella Forbes The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

Phillips, Caryl “The Dignity of the Examined Life: The Biographical Slant in Caryl Phillips Writing” Bénédicte Ledent The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

Powell, Patricia “Jamaican Nationalism, Queer Intimacies, and the Disjunctures of the Chinese Diaspora: Patricia Powell’s The Pagoda” Jason Frydman Small Axe 5(34).

Rhys, Jean “‘I Cut It and Cut It’: Jean Rhys’s Short Short Fiction” Joanna Johnson The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives pp169-182 [see General Criticism].

Salkey, Andrew “‘And Always, Anancy Changes’: An Exploration of Andrew Salkey’s Anancy Stories” Emily Zobel Marshall The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives pp201-217 [see General Criticism].

Senior, Olive “Intertwinings: the ‘Amazing Fecundity’ of Olive Senior” Shirley Chew The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives pp1269-283 [see General Criticism].

—– “‘The Voice from the Bottom of the Well’: Olive Senior’s ‘Grung’/Ground(ed) Poetics” Michael A. Bucknor The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

Walcott, Derek “‘All Strangers Here’: ‘Native’ as Invasive in the Poetry of Derek Walcott’” Mac Fenwick The Journal of West Indian Literature 20(1).

—– “Derek Walcott: on Being a Caribbean Poet” Edward Baugh The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

Wynter, Sylvia “Insurgent Criticism: Sylvia Wynter’s Poetics of Disenchantment” Norval Edward The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature np [see General Criticism].

Non-fiction

Phillips, Caryl Color Me English: Thoughts about Migration and Belonging before and after 9/11 352pp New Press (New York) $25.95.

Smith, Godfrey P. George Price: A Life Revealed – The Authorized Biography 358pp Ian Randle (Kingston) $25.

Journals

Special Issues

Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal 8(1) eds Majorie Brooks-Jones and Ian Strachan: special issue Bahamian Literature http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/anthurium/.

Journal of West Indian Literature 19(2) eds Denise DeCaires Narain, Allison Donnell and Evely’n O’Callaghan Shani Mootoo: Writing, Difference and the Caribbean.