History as Character in Caribbean Literature

This monograph negotiates the central and strategic place History occupies in Caribbean literature. It argues that the aesthetic has developed in strict fidelity to the historical process mirroring its significant and defining moments, moods and temperaments. But the study intensely problematises History and figures it as a contested and contestable site because of the ambivalences and dilemmas among Caribbean writers as to whether this history actually exists or not. It implicates language, culture, identity and the ambiguities and ambivalences that confront the Caribbean writer's choices. Deploying canonical texts by established Caribbean writers like Derek Walcott, V.S. Naipaul, George Lamming, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Wilson Harris, and Edgar Mittelholzer, the monograph grapples with the dominant issues that underwrite the Caribbean literary tradition. These include: identity crisis, the relentless quest for roots, economic exploitation, racial discrimination, cultural deracination, political domination and the conspiracies of a violent History. It is a valuable resource for university academics, students, researchers and literary historians.