The Caribbean Novel since 1945: Cultural Practice, Form, and the Nation-State
Author(s): Michael Niblett (author) (Author)
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Publication Date: 28 Feb. 2012
Language: English
Print length: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 1617032476
ISBN-13: 9781617032479
Book Description
How fiction, its forms, and its evolution reflect countries in the midst of postcolonial change The Caribbean Novel since 1945 offers a comparative analysis of fiction from throughout pan-Caribbean, exploring the relationship between literary form, cultural practice, and the nation-state. Engaging with the historical and political impact of capitalist imperialism, decolonization, class struggle, ethnic conflict, and gender relations, Michael Niblett considers the ways in which Caribbean authors have sought to rethink and renarrate the traumatic past and often problematic postcolonial present of the region’s peoples. This work pays particular attention to how cultural practices, such as stickfighting and Carnival, and religious rituals and beliefs, such as Vodou and Myal, have figured in reshaping the novel form. Beginning with the post-WWII period, when optimism surrounding the possibility of social and political change peaked, The Caribbean Novel since 1945 interrogates the trajectories of various national projects. The scope of Niblett’s analysis is varied and comprehensive, covering both critically acclaimed and lesser-known authors from the Anglophone, Francophone, and Hispanophone traditions. These include Jacques Roumain, Sam Selvon, Marie Chauvet, Luis Rafael Sánchez, Earl Lovelace, Patrick Chamoiseau, Erna Brodber, Wilson Harris, Shani Mootoo, Oonya Kempadoo, Ernest Moutoussamy, and Pedro Juan Gutiérrez. Mixing detailed analysis of key texts with wider surveys of significant trends, this book emphasizes the continuing significance of representations of the nation-state to contemporary Caribbean literature. Michael Niblett, Warwickshire, United Kingdom, is research fellow at the Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick in Coventry, United Kingdom. He is the coeditor of Perspectives on the Other America: Comparative Approaches to Caribbean and Latin American Culture.
Editorial Reviews
Review
The Caribbean Novel since 1945 is a major contribution to commentary on Caribbean literary practices since the end of World War II. Spanning a period that covers the anticolonial struggles in the Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean, decolonization and the reconfigurations of the new nation-states and avoiding an approach that simply sees literature as a tool for revisionist historiography, Niblett places his main emphasis on the relationship between national transformations and literary form. He demonstrates how new modalities of thought have emerged from the social reorganizations that have taken place in the Caribbean and offers analyses of the work of writers such as Edouard Glissant, Earl Lovelace, Patrick Chamoiseau, Wilson Harris, and Erna Brodber that breaks new ground. This is an important book for students and readers interested in ways in which Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean writing has evolved across the decades and absolutely essential to anyone considering the commonalities and differences to be found in the writing of the two linguistic groupings.–John Thieme, professor of literature, drama and creative writing, University of East Anglia
Michael Niblett’s book provides a panoramic analysis of fiction from across the Caribbean, tracking significant trends in the literature and exploring the mutation of key tropes in changing political and historical contexts. In its examination of the impact of cultural practices such as Vodou on the very form of the novel, it opens up original perspectives on how Caribbean writers represent the complex histories of the region’s societies. The choice of authors and texts is wide-ranging and comprehensive, providing welcome new interpretations of established figures as well as consideration of understudied writers and traditions. Ultimately, it offers a set of compelling arguments that encourage us to rethink the trajectories of the Caribbean novel since 1945.–David Dabydeen, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of Guyana
From the Inside Flap
How fiction, its forms, and its evolution reflect countries in the midst of postcolonial change
From the Back Cover
How fiction, its forms, and its evolution reflect countries in the midst of postcolonial change
About the Author
Michael Niblett is research fellow at the Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick in Coventry, United Kingdom. He is the co-editor of Perspectives on the Other America: Comparative Approaches to Caribbean and Latin American Culture.
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