Twentieth Century Caribbean Literature

289 Pages·2005·0.95 MB·English

by  Alison Donnell

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Twentieth-Century Caribbean Literature Twentieth Century
Caribbean Literature Twentieth-Century Caribbean Literat
Twentieth-Century Caribbean Literature Twentieth Century
‘Nothing less than a radical
challenge to the canon of
Caribbean Literature Twentieth-Century Caribbean Literat
Caribbean literature and its
repressions.’
Shalini Puri, University of Twentieth-Centu
Pittsburgh
Caribbean
‘Likely to initiate more
generous and promiscuous
Literature
readings of Caribbean writings.’
Denise deCaires Narain,
University of Sussex Twentieth Century
Caribbean Literature
This bold study traces the processes by which a ‘history’ and canon
of Caribbean literature and criticism have been constructed, and
Twentieth Century
offers a supplement to that history by suggesting new writers, texts
and critical moments that help to reconfigure the Caribbean
tradition. Caribbean Literature
Focusing on Anglophone or Anglocreole writings from across the
Twentieth-Century
twentieth century, Alison Donnell asks what it is that we read when Critical moments
we approach ‘Caribbean Literature’, how it is that we read it, and
what critical, ideological and historical pressures may have shaped Caribbean
in anglophone
our choices and approaches. In particular, she:
literary history Literature Twent
• addresses the exclusions that have resulted from the
construction of a Caribbean canon
• rethinks the dominant paradigms of Caribbean literary criticism, Century Caribbea
which have foregrounded issues of anti-colonialism and
nationalism; migration and diaspora; ‘doubly colonised’ woman;
Literature Twent
the marginalisation of sexuality and homosexuality
• seeks to put new issues and writings into critical circulation, by
reading lesser-known authors and texts, including Indian Century Caribbea
A
Caribbean women’s writings and Caribbean queer writings.
l
i Literature Twentieth Century Caribbean Literature Twentie
Identifying alternative critical approaches and alternative critical s
o
moments, Twentieth-Century Caribbean Literatureallows us to
n Century Caribbean Literature Twentieth Century Caribbean
re-examine the way in which we read not only Caribbean writings,

but also the literary history and criticism that surround them. D
o Literature Twentieth Century Caribbean Literature Twentie
n
Alison Donnellis Reader in Postcolonial and English Literatures at n
e Century Caribbean Literature
Nottingham Trent University. She is co-editor of The Routledge
l
Reader in Caribbean Literature(1996) and has published widely in l
the field of Caribbean and postcolonial writings. She is also Joint
Editor of Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies.
Literary Studies / Postcolonial Studies
Alison Donnell
Cover image: Paul Faulkner
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Twentieth-Century
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3 Caribbean Literature
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3111 This bold study traces the processes by which a ‘history’ and canon of
4 Caribbean literature and criticism have been constructed, and offers a
5 supplement to that history by suggesting new writers, texts and critical
6 moments that help to reconfigure the Caribbean tradition.
7
8 Focusing on Anglophone or Anglocreole writings from across the twentieth
9 century, Alison Donnell asks what it is that we read when we approach
20111 ‘Caribbean Literature’, how it is that we read it, and what critical, ideo-
1 logical and historical pressures may have shaped our choices and
2 approaches. In particular, she:
3
4 • addresses the exclusions that have resulted from the construction of
5 a Caribbean canon
6 • rethinks the dominant paradigms of Caribbean literary criticism, which
7 have foregrounded issues of anti-colonialism and nationalism; migra-
8 tion and diaspora; the ‘doubly-colonised’ woman; the marginalisation
9 of sexuality and homosexuality
30111 • seeks to put new issues and writings into critical circulation, by reading
1 lesser-known authors and texts, including Indian Caribbean women’s
2 writings and Caribbean queer writings.
3
4 Identifying alternative critical approaches and alternative critical moments,
5 Twentieth-Century Caribbean Literature allows us to re-examine the way in
6 which we read not only Caribbean writings, but also the literary history
7 and criticism that surround them.
8
9 Alison Donnell is Reader in Postcolonial Literatures and English at
40111 Nottingham Trent University. She is co-editor of The Routledge Reader in
1 Caribbean Literature (1996) and has published widely in the field of Caribbean
2 and postcolonial writings. She is also Joint Editor of Interventions: International
3 Journal of Postcolonial Studies.
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3111 Besides the intelligence and acuity of the readings of individual texts
4 that Twentieth-Century Caribbean Literatureprovides, it amounts to nothing
5 less than a radical challenge to the canon of Caribbean literature and
6 its repressions. It is the only comprehensive sketch of all the major
7 blind spots of Caribbean literary history and criticism, identifying and
8 correcting not only the exclusions of nationalist canons, but also of
9 post-nationalism and feminist ones. It is also the first systematic attempt
20111 at tracing representations of homosexuality across Anglophone
1 Caribbean literature. Donnell thus puts into critical circulation a rich,
2 unruly, and diverse body of literature. (Indeed, though I have special-
3 ized in Caribbean literature for several years, this book brought to
4 my attention texts I had no idea existed.) One of the particular plea-
5 sures of Donnell’s work is its delicate intertwining of theoretical and
6 literary insight.’
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Shalini Puri, University of Pittsburgh
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30111 This book will extend the archive of Caribbean texts in challenging
1 and exciting ways and is likely to initiate more generous and promis-
2 cuous readings of Caribbean writings, as well as making a valuable
3 contribution to debates about the local and the global which are so
4 central to postcolonial studies.
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Denise deCaires Narain, University of Sussex
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Caribbean Literature
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Critical moments in anglophone
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literary history
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Alison Donnell
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3111 First published 2006
4 by Routledge
2/4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
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6 Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Taylor & Francis Inc
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270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
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© 2006 Alison Donnell
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Typeset in Baskerville by
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Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon
2 Printed and bound in Great Britain by
3 The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wiltshire
4 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
5 reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
6
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
7 without permission in writing from the publishers.
8 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
9 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
30111 Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
1 Donnell, Alison, 1966–.
Twentieth-century Caribbean literature: critical moments in Anglophone
2
literary history/Alison Donnell.
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p. cm.
4 Includes bibliographical references (p. 000).
5 1. Caribbean literature (English) – History and criticism – Theory, etc.
2. Caribbean literature – 20th century – History and criticism – Theory,
6
etc. 3. Caribbean Area – Intellectual life – 20th century. 4. Caribbean
7 Area – In literature. I. Title: 20th century Caribbean literature.
8 II. Title.
PR9205.D66 2006
9 820.9′9729′0904–dc22 2005009603
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1 ISBN10: 0–415–26199–6 ISBN13: 9–78–0–415–26199–9 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–26200–3 ISBN13: 9–78–0–415–26200–2 (pbk)
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Contents
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3111 Acknowledgements ix
4 Introduction 1
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1 Difficult subjects: Caribbean writing before the boom 10
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2 Global villages and watery graves: Recrossing the Black
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Atlantic 77
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3 Double agents: Gender, ethnicity and the absent woman 130
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4 Sexing the subject: Writing and the politics of Caribbean
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sexual identity 181
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7 References 251
8 Index 271
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Cover Acknowledgements
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3111 Photograph courtesy of Paul Faulkner
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Cover of Small Axe, Vol 7 reproduced by kind permission of Indiana
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University Press.
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7 Cover of Cereus Blooms at Night, Shanti Mootoo, Granta, London, 1998.
8 By kind permission of the publisher
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Cover of My Jamaican Village, Erna Brodber, courtesy of the Author.
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1 Cover of An Island is a World, Samuel Selvon, Tsar Publications, 1994. By
2 kind permission of the publisher.
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Cover of The Swinging Bridge. Published by Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.
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Copyright © 2003 by Rambai Espinet. All rights reserved.
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6 Cover of Tomorrow is Another Day, Narmala Shewcharan, Peepal Tree Press,
7 1994. By kind permission of the publisher.
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Cover of The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature, ed. Alison Donnell,
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Routledge, London, 1996. Reprinted by kind permission of the publisher.
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1 Cover of Women Writing the West Indies, 1804–1939: ‘A Hot Place Belonging
2 to Us’, Evelyn O’Callaghan, Routledge, London, 2003. Reprinted by kind
3 permission of the publisher.
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Acknowledgements
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3111 I am very grateful to the Leverhulme Foundation for a Research Fellowship
4 and funding to visit and to copy vital archives, and to the Department
5 of English and Media Studies at Nottingham Trent University for study
6 leave to complete this book. I also want to extend my thanks to Liz
7 Thompson, my editor at Routledge, as well as Talia Rogers, both of whom
8 have remained endlessly patient, encouraging and cheerful in their
9 communications.
20111 For the opportunity to explore and discuss many of the ideas that
1 are published here I am grateful to the University of the West Indies, the
2 Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars, the Centre for
3 Commonwealth Studies at Stirling University, the University of Oxford
4 Postcolonial Seminar Series, The Open Lecture Series at the University
5 of Gloucestershire and the Black British Canon Conference at University
6 of Dundee.
7 Small portions from some of the chapters in this book were first published
8 elsewhere: a version of my reading of Aelred’s Sin in chapter 4 has been
9 published in ‘Reading for Reconciliation in Lawrence Scott’s Aelred’s
30111 Sin’, Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings 3.2 (2004), 98–109; a
1 much earlier reading of Olive Senior’s poetry appears in ‘Here and there
2 in the work of Olive Senior: relocating diaspora discourses in relation to
3 Caribbean women’s writing’ in Centre of Remembrance, Joan Anim-Addo (ed.)
4 (Mango Publishing, 2002), 66–80; my analysis of Una Marson’s poetry
5 was given a partial and early hearing in ‘Contradictory (W)omens? gender
6 consciousness in the poetry of Una Marson’, Kunapipi, XVII (1995), 43–58.
7 For permission to use their book covers for my own, I am grateful to
8 Harper Collins Canada, Granta Books, Blackspace, Tsar Publications,
9 Peepal Tree Press and Indiana University Press.
40111 This book has taken a very long time to appear and I have accrued
1 many debts of patience, advice and inspiration along the way. I want to
2 extend my thanks to Helen Taylor and the late (and great) Anna Rutherford
3 who both offered vital encouragement and support at the beginning of
4 my career. I am extremely grateful to Elleke Boehmer, Carolyn Cooper,
45111 Denise deCaires Narain, James Procter, Shalini Puri, Katy Stanley and