This book explores the politics of ethnicity and nationalism in the Caribbean from a critical discourse-analytical perspective. Focusing on political communication in Trinidad and Tobago, it offers unique socio-political insights into one of the most complex and diverse countries of the Archipelago. Through a detailed reconstruction of Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s 2010 victorious run for office, this book offers ample empirical evidence of the multimodal discursive strategies that held the key to the success of the first woman PM candidate and her inter-ethnic coalition bid to overcome political tribalism in the country. In parallel, it explores the implications and challenges of the postcolonial Trinbagonian national project, caught between pluralism and creolization. Through its innovative, context-dependent and interdisciplinary CDS approach, this book breaks new ground in Caribbean Studies while at the same time broadening the horizons of the Euro-American tradition of Political Discourse Studies to address the complexities of global postcoloniality.

Anton Allahar, University of Toronto:
Eleonora Esposito has conducted a wonderfully incisive study of the complex interplay of ‘race’, ethnicity, gender, history, culture, politics and identity in modern Trinidad. The main thrust of her argument revolves around the thorny problem of national belonging in a modern society built on the ashes of a still-smoldering British colonial empire. The racist and sexist scars of that empire that employed the old techniques of divide and rule, continue to resonate in today’s political contests as the main ethnic groups, African- and Indian-descended, have inherited the distorted institutions of the departed colonial masters. Esposito writes with the familiarity of an insider, the objectivity of an outsider, and the commitment of a true scholar. The argument she advances is theoretically innovative and happily free of jargon. This is a very useful addition to the literature on ‘democracy’ and the contestation of national, racial, and class belonging in modern Trinidad.