The Caribbean

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic did not have such as an enormous impact on the Caribbean region as it had in other parts of the world. Whilst, sadly, the Dominical Republic, Puerto Rico or Cuba had the biggest number of fatalities by May 2020, other islands such as Bonaire, Saba or the British Virgin Islands had less than ten cases. Additionally, most, if not all, of the infected on Anguilla, Dominica or Saint Kitts and Nevis, eventually recovered. However, a greater temporal distance is required to analyse these events and their representation in literature and criticism.

In terms of the 2019 literary production in the Caribbean region, it is worth highlighting that two of the most renowned literary prizes for English language poetry were awarded to Caribbean authors. British-Trinidadian dub poet Roger Robinson won the T.S. Eliot prize for his collection A Portable Paradise, a book which tackles some of contemporary society’s major issues such as violence and racism. The other award winner was Lorna Goodison, Jamaica’s Poet Laureate, who was the recipient of The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry 2019 for her vital contributions to Commonwealth literature, including her 13 poetry books and short story collections.

Established authors such as Vahni Capildeo and Kei Miller released new publications in 2019. Skin Can Hold by Capildeo is an experimental poetry collection inspired by the performing arts and exploring visual aspects of the Caribbean cultural legacy. Identity issues are examined throughout this book, which continues her analysis of many of the topics explored in her previous works. The search for a sense of place is one of the main topics present in Miller’s new collection of poems, In Nearby Bushes, a book characterised by ambiguous referentiality in the use of deictic pronouns such as “here” or “there”. The anthology’s three sections venture to places such as Jamaica to formulate a noir aesthetic through the use of intertextual references such as newspaper crime reports.

Marlon James’s highly anticipated new novel Black Leopard, Red Wolf is the first volume of a planned trilogy. Black Leopard, Red Wolf uses African history and folklore in order to create a world inhabited by the strange and wonderful creatures that accompany the protagonist in his quest. Language, geography and form are amongst the themes of this novel that has, seemingly, been written for a young-adult audience but which transcends such pigeonholing. Jamaican author Curdella Forbes also published a new novel in 2019: A Tall History of Sugar is an epic Caribbean romance where magical realism plays a fundamental role. Inspired by the rhetoric of the Latin American Boom of the 1950s, the main plot follows the fate of a character born without skin. Thus, issues of race are explored in this text, which travels from the mid-20^th century to the present, alongside a love story of the two main protagonists from childhood to adulthood.

Writer, sociologist and social activist Erna Brodber published a new study in 2019. Moments of Cooperation and Incorporation: African American and African Jamaican Connections, 1782-1996 contains six essays that explore issues including slavery and the ensuing revolts for freedom that culminated in the recognition of basic civil rights in both Jamaica and the United States. One of the main focal points of this academic book is the collective experience of resistance from two territories that share a common historical background. The Black Atlantic is the centrepiece of her study, which highlights, in its six chapters, how diasporic communities of African descent struggled to acquire self-respect and political representation from the 18^th to the 20^th century.

Caribbean authors have also been the focus of several different academic publications. Fred D’Aguiar and Caribbean Literature. Metaphor, Myth, Memory by Leo Courbot is the first research monograph dedicated entirely to the British-Guyanese author who has produced works of poetry, fiction and drama. Courbot draws on postcolonial theory and work by scholars such as Jacques Derrida or Édouard Glissant to analyse the verse and prose works of D’Aguiar. Similarly, Caribbean political and intellectual figure Una Marson is praised in Una Marson. Caribbean Biography Series by Lisa Tomlinson. Marson was a leading Pan-African Jamaican feminist whose legacy is examined in this new publication that highlights the significant contributions of one of the most important thinkers in Caribbean history. Her writing not only inspired a new generation of authors, but also changed the literary landscape of her time thanks to her thought-provoking texts, many of which are analysed in this tome alongside her life and professional career.

Also this year, Critical Studies focused on issues such as diaspora, identity, gender, politics, history, ethnicity and race. Exile and Return as Poetics of Identity in Contemporary Anglo-Caribbean Literature. Becoming Home by Eleonora N. Ravizza analyses the ways in which literature and language have addressed ideas related to exile or return and the ways in which literary texts have assisted the construction of personal and collective identities in the Caribbean. The historical period this book explores begins with colonialism, including slave narratives and those inspired by the Middle Passage, and ends with literary productions which represent the fight for freedom that ended in the abolishment of slavery. Authors such as V. S, Naipaul, David Dabydeen, Marlene NourbeSe Philip and Derek Walcott are at the centre of this study, highlighting the hybrid and transcultural dimension of Caribbean literature. Theories of intertextuality and language philosophy assist Ravizza in considering how literature captures cultural and social interests within an ever-changing society.

In Topographies of Caribbean Writing: Race and the British Countryside, Joanna Johnson analyses how Caribbean authors see the British countryside, examining works by Derek Walcott, V. S. Naipaul, Jean Rhys, and Andrea Levy, amongst others. This book’s seven chapters explore the way in which Caribbean characters express either their inclusion or marginalisation in relation to British rural spaces. Johnson utilises postcolonial theory to question their sense of Britishness in a number of texts that are simultaneously complex and ambiguous, suggesting that racial relations within the rural Britain go way beyond the stereotypical pastoral niceties.

C. L. R. James’s classic The Black Jacobins is re-examined by Rachel Douglas in her study Making the Black Jacobins. C. L. R. James and the Drama of History. This monograph offers a chronological approach covering the evolution of the book by means of exploring and analysing the different editions published between the 1930s and the 1960s. Douglas forensically examines manuscripts, interviews and other sources to trace the different factors that motivated James to revisit the Haitian Revolution. The analysis, of what is one of the keystones of Caribbean studies, focuses on the numerous influences found within the book, from Marxist theory to philosophy. Here The Black Jacobins, as a work-in-progress historical account, is lauded as a multi-layered text that has revolutionised Caribbean historiography due to its accuracy and detail.

Caribbean art was also an object of critical explorations this year. Beyond Representation in Contemporary Caribbean Art: Space, Politics, and the Public Sphere by Carlos Garrido Castellano takes the reader on a journey through the different artistic and curatorial manifestations that have emerged from the Caribbean islands in the last years. Visual creativity remains the focal point of this study, which features artistic creations from Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Cuba, as well as other locations. Garrido Castellano argues that both art and visual space play a fundamental role in fostering social interaction. Accordingly, contemporary Caribbean artistic production is seen as engaging with cultural and identity manifestations in a way which transcends the simple representation of individual or communal interests. Accompanied by 35 colour images, the study regards art as a form of politics by promoting public collaboration.

2019 special issues on Caribbean literature focus on a great variety of topics. Pamela McCullum is the editor of a special issue on black diasporic writing, which features essays on Caribbean authors George Lammon, Sam Selvon and Fred G’Aguiar. Pieces by authors such as Tobias Buckell and Karen Lord are analysed in a special issue edited by Debra Providence that explores contemporary Caribbean science and speculative fiction. History, gender and pedagogy are covered in other special issues from differing journals of Caribbean literatures, languages and cultures.