Caribbeing

From wide-ranging overviews of the entire region to close readings of specific works, this volume opens a fascinating window on the literatures and cultures of the Caribbean, covering texts in the multiplicity of languages used in the wider Caribbean: Spanish, English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and the region’s many creoles. Authors and works discussed range from luminaries such as Derek Walcott to hitherto practically unknown works in Antillean creole languages. Underlying is the idea to foster the study of the Caribbean literary, artistic and visual text through a comparative lens, a firm proposal to think beyond the persisting linguistic barriers and scholarly divides in the field. As such, Caribbeing: Comparing Caribbean Literatures and Cultures brings a new approach to the Caribbean embracing the region’s linguistic multiplicity and complexity without eschewing the many theoretical challenges and obstacles such a scholarly endeavor entails. Because of its ample scope this book will appeal to scholars and students working on the Caribbean and Latin America, but also to those interested in the broader fields of postcolonial and cultural studies.

"This book is much more than a book on the Caribbean: it underlines the global dimensions and relevance of Caribbean Studies in the twenty-first century. Following carefully the crossroads of literatures and cultures, it shows new routes allowing us to rethink our world(s) in a transarchipelagic mode. An eye-opener: accelerated globalization is unthinkable without the Caribbean." – Ottmar Ette, University of Potsdam

"Rarely have the multiple flows and enduring traumas of Caribbean culture been explored from such a boldly wide-ranging and profoundly comparative set of perspectives. An indispensable work that sets a new standard for Caribbeanist scholarship." – Maarten van Delden, Universtiy of California, Los Angeles

"Canonical Caribbean writers are read alongside less famous authors and artists, going beyond the traditional focus and incorporating music, poetry, and art into the investigation. Furthermore, there is considerable emphasis on Dutch Caribbean literature, an oeuvre often overshadowed by criticism of more prominent anglophone, francophone, and Hispanic Caribbean writers. the collection is an insightful comparative study of Caribbean literature and culture, which will be of great interest to students and scholars of the Caribbean alike." – Antonia Wimbush, University of Birmingham, in: Modern Language Review 111/3 (2016), pp. 844-846

"The analytic caliber and originality of the collection’s essays is, with few exceptions, uniformly high […] An important contribution to our area’s rewarding study, the Caribbean this collection argues for and reveals is, nonetheless, finally a region beyond geography or specific location." – Roberto Márguez, Mount Holyoke College, in: New West Indian Guide 90 (2016), pp. 170-172