The Caribbean Novel Since 1945: Cultural Practice

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 regions 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 Nibletts 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 Sلnchez, 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.