I then compare Cesaire's Caribbean "shape" to that of Rene Depestre, and a quite different model emerges. I find that Africa is relatively absent in Depestre's work: Europe is not presented as a threat; and that Depestre, unlike Cesaire, sees, in the Caribbean, an energy and a creativity brought about by the historical fusion of disparate cultures. I consider how the reality of Depestre's long exile from the Caribbean has affected his views of the islands.

This book thematically analyses and surveys areas of Caribbean history and society. The work is divided into three parts: part one addresses migration and identity; part two explores policy and development; and part three explores music and literature. The volume places a fresh perspective on these topics. The essays depart from the usual broader themes of politics, economics and society and provide a deeper insight into forces that left a decisive legacy on aspects of the Caribbean region. Such contributions come at a time when some of the Caribbean territories are marking over 50 years as independent nation states and attempting to create, understand and forge ways of dealing with critical national and regional issues. The volume brings together a broad group of scholars writing on Caribbean issues including postgraduate students, lecturers, and researchers. Each chapter is thematically divided into the aforementioned areas. This book addresses areas much deeper than the linear historical and social science models, and it offers Caribbean academics and researchers a foundation for further research.

The Circum-Caribbean and its diasporas constitute a space of relations and disconnections. Historically, the Caribbean served as a bridgehead for the European conquest of the Americas and a point of exchange of human beings, ideas, and commodities. It also became a laboratory of modern forms of social, political, and economic production. Today, the region represents a multilingual space of conviviality for many different cultures, but is also the focus of the dissonances, ruptures and insularities produced by its distinct histories of colonialism and resistance. This interdisciplinary volume seeks to explore how (non-)circulation of ideas occurred historically in the glocal production of knowledge in and about the Caribbean and to formulate a clearer picture of who is creating which vision of the Caribbean, and how. The 33 contributions in this volume shed light on the transversal fields of (1) Academic and Artistic Approaches, (2) Arts and Visual Studies, (3) Environment and Sustainability, (4) Migration and Knowledge Circulation, (5) Entangled Histories and Memories. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

This volume collects new angles and perspectives on issues shaping the development of the Caribbean. Bringing together essays on regional integration, identity, and culture and focusing on foundational personalities and institutions in the region, this book opens up new lines of inquiry on twentieth-century Caribbean history. Essays examine popular perspectives of the West Indies Federation; the intersections of ideology and governance through key figures such as C. L. R. James and Rawson William Rawson; the socioeconomic context of Caribbean foodways; and Carnival as a tool of cultural diplomacy. Integration is a critical theme throughout. Pointing to the region’s rich cultural and historical heritage, this book explores how Caribbean unification may provide a way forward for this patchwork of island territories facing the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Exile and Post-1946 Haitian Literature provides readers with an excellent introduction to recent Haitian literature, one of the richest literary traditions in the Americas. Martin Munro focuses on works written after 1946, a period in which exile has become the dominant theme in Haitian literature. Using this notion of Haitian writing as a literature of exile, Munro analyzes key novels by the most important figures of each generation of the past sixty years, including Jacques Stephen Alexis, René Depestre, Émile Ollivier, Dany Laferrière, and Edwidge Danticat.

Since 1965, West Indians have been emigrating to the United States in record numbers, and to New York City in particular. Caribbean New York shows how the new immigration is reshaping American race relations and sheds much-needed light on factors that underlie some of the city's explosive racial confrontations. Philip Kasinitz examines how two forces--racial solidarity and ethnic distinctiveness--have helped to shape the identity of New York's West Indian community. He compares "new" (post-1965) immigrants with West Indians who arrived earlier in the century, and looks in detail at the economic, political, and cultural rules that Afro-Caribbean immigrants have played in the city during each period.

Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994), the novel born from Edwidge Danticat’s childhood in Haiti and immigration to New York City, was one of the great literary debuts of recent times, marking the emergence of an impressive talent in addition to opening up an entire culture to a broad general readership. This gifted author went on to win the American Book Award in 1999 for her novel, The Farming of Bones (1998), attracting further critical acclaim. Offering an accessible guide for readers and critics alike, this book is the first publication devoted entirely to Danticat’s unique and remarkable work. It is also distinctive in that it addresses all of her published writing up to The Dew Breaker (2004), including her writing for children, her travel writing, her short fiction, and her novels. The book contains an exclusive interview with Danticat, in which she discusses her recent memoir, Brother, I’m Dying (2007), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. It also includes an extensive bibliography. With contributions from Danticat’s fellow creative writers from both the Caribbean and the United States as well as leading scholars of Caribbean literature, this collection of essays aims to enrich readers’ understanding of the various geographical, literary, and cultural contexts of her work and to demonstrate how it both influences and is influenced by them. Contributors Madison Smartt Bell * Myriam J. A. Chancy * Maryse Condé * J. Michael Dash * Charles Forsdick * Mary Gallagher * Régine Michelle Jean-Charles * Carine Mardorossian * Nadève Ménard * Martin Munro * Nick Nesbitt * Mireille Rosello * Renee H. Shea * Évelyne Trouillot * Lyonel Trouillot * Kiera Vaclavik

This study focuses on current healing practices from a cultural memory perspective.

1. Introduction -- 2. Envisioning social landscapes of interconnection -- 3. Reshaping difference and interdependence : the transformation of family life and divisions of labour into the twentieth century -- 4. Contemporary transformations in gender, work and family -- 5. Disposition and position : norms, attitudes and commitments to children, work and self -- 6. Life course transitions and the changing landscape of opportunity and constraint --7. Ethnicity and contexts of belonging and exclusion -- 8. Difference, hierarchy and perceptions of social justice -- 9. Conclusion.