With the publication of her novel "Annie John" in 1985, Jamaica Kincaid entered the ranks of the best novelists of her generation. Her three autobiographical novels, "Annie John," " Lucy," and "Autobiography of My Mother," and collection of short stories, "At the Bottom of the River," touch on the universal theme of coming-of-age and the female adolescent's need to sever her ties to her mother. This angst is couched in the social landscape of post-colonial Antigua, a small Caribbean island whose legacy of racism affects Kincaid's protagonists. Her fiction rewrites the history of the Caribbean from a West Indies perspective and this milieu colors the experiences of her characters.

Following a biographical chapter, Paravisini-Gebert traces the development of Kincaid's craft as a writer. Each of the novels and the collection of short stories is discussed in a separate chapter that includes sections on plot, character, theme, and an alternate critical approach from which to read the novel, such as feminist. A complete primary and secondary bibliography and lists of selected reviews of Kincaid's work complete the study.

The Caribbean is an exotic yet not too distant land, full of rich cultural traditions. It is also a land of economic, political, and social concerns, and many American students have ties to the area. Literary works by Caribbean writers reflect the cultural issues and interests of the region. This book helps students use Caribbean literature to learn about the area and its people. Included are chapters on roughly a dozen contemporary Caribbean writers. Each chapter begins with a biography and critical assessment of a writer. This is followed by an analysis of one or more of the writer's works. Along with plot summaries, these sections discuss major themes and give close attention to how Caribbean culture figures in the writer's texts. To help students conduct further research, each chapter cites works for further reading.

This comprehensive, annotated bibliography of works by and about Caribbean women novelists from 1950 to the present covers novelists from all Caribbean islands and Surinam writing in English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and their dialects. Entries on some 150 individual writers are organized alphabetically and comprise a biographical sketch, data on novels with plot synopses, a listing of other known publications in all genres, as well as annotated criticism and reviews. Included are translations, interviews, recorded materials, and broadcast literature. Sources range from publications of major presses and journals in various countries and languages to dissertations and items from local newspapers and small presses. Preceding the author entries is a Bibliography of General Works covering criticism; bibliographies, both regional and for individual countries; and bio-bibliographical reference books. Alternative means of access are provided by a List of Authors by Country and indexes of novels, critics, and themes and key words. A guide to resources on literature of the Netherlands Antilles is included as an appendix. Caribbean literature--and Caribbean women writers in particular--is one of the fastest growing fields of literary study. Additionally, the Caribbean presents an ideal laboratory for other areas of intense research: comparative literatures and post-colonial studies. This bibliography serves these interests, placing special emphasis on common themes and techniques that transcend national boundaries and linguistic differences.

An updated introduction to the religions developed in the Caribbean region Creole Religions of the Caribbean offers a comprehensive introduction to the overlapping religions that have developed as a result of the creolization process. Caribbean peoples drew on the variants of Christianity brought by European colonizers, as well as on African religious and healing traditions and the remnants of Amerindian practices, to fashion new systems of belief. From Vodou, Santeria, Regla de Palo, the Abakua Secret Society, and Obeah to Quimbois and Espiritismo, the volume traces the historical-cultural origins of the major Creole religions, as well as the newer traditions such as Rastafari. This third edition updates the scholarship by featuring new critical approaches that have been brought to bear on the study of religion, such as queer studies, environmental studies, and diasporic studies. The third edition also expands the regional considerations of the diaspora to the US Latinx communities that are influenced by Creole spiritual practices, taking into account the increased significance of material culture?art, music, literature, and healing practices influenced by Creole religions.

This collection includes the four collections of Allfrey's poems published during her lifetime, all the unpublished poems found in her papers, and a sample of her satirical poems from The Star newspaper in Dominica.

An updated introduction to the religions developed in the Caribbean region Creole Religions of the Caribbean offers a comprehensive introduction to the overlapping religions that have developed as a result of the creolization process. Caribbean peoples drew on the variants of Christianity brought by European colonizers, as well as on African religious and healing traditions and the remnants of Amerindian practices, to fashion new systems of belief. From Vodou, Santería, Regla de Palo, the Abakuá Secret Society, and Obeah to Quimbois and Espiritismo, the volume traces the historical–cultural origins of the major Creole religions, as well as the newer traditions such as Rastafari. This third edition updates the scholarship by featuring new critical approaches that have been brought to bear on the study of religion, such as queer studies, environmental studies, and diasporic studies. The third edition also expands the regional considerations of the diaspora to the US Latinx communities that are influenced by Creole spiritual practices, taking into account the increased significance of material culture?art, music, literature, and healing practices influenced by Creole religions.

"A marvelous example of African Diaspora Studies . . . challenges our usual scholarly and everyday articulations of religion, even as it clearly articulates the possibilities and limits of Caribbean African retentions in Vodou, Santeria, and Obeah." --Barbara Christian, University of California, Berkeley Sacred Possessions is an unprecedented collection of thirteen comparative and interdisciplinary essays exploring the cross-cultural dynamics of African-based religious systems in the Caribbean. The contributors analyze the nature and liturgies of Vodou, Santeria, Obeah, Quimbois, and Gaga as they form one central cultural matrix in the region. They ask how these belief systems were affected by differing colonial histories and landscapes, how they affected other cultural expressions (from the oral tradition to popular art and literature), and how they have been perceived and (mis)represented by the West. The book is a unique contribution to the study of the Caribbean as a site of mutliculturalism, demonstrating the linkages between anthropology, religion, literature, and popular culture. Also included are a stunning photoessay on Cuban Santeria, a glossary of terms, and an insightful introduction by the editors. Margarite Fernandez Olmos is a professor of Spanish at Brooklyn College. She is coeditor and translator with Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert of Pleasure in the Word: Erotic Writing by Latin American Women and Remaking a Lost Harmony: Stories from the Hispanic Caribbean. Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert is a professor of Caribbean and Latin American literature in the department of Hispanic studies at Vassar College. She is the coeditor of Green Cane and Juicy Flotsam: Short Stories by Caribbean Women and author of Phyllis Shand Allfrey: A Caribbean Life.

First published in 1954, The Orchid House, Phyllis Shand Allfrey's only published novel, is a classic of Caribbean literature. In this markedly autobiographical story of the three daughters of a once-powerful but now impoverished white family, Allfrey interweaves her family's history with the history of her home island of Dominica in the twentieth century. The novel is written in a sensuous style and the story remarkably told through the eyes of Lally, the black nurse of the three sisters. Often praised for the clear-sightedness of its analysis of the Dominican historical process, The Orchid House stands at a crucial intersection of West Indian politics. It was during this period that the colonized took over from the colonizer the direction of local governments. Allfrey, a Fabian socialist and founder of Dominica's first political party, articulates in this novel the central tenet of a political philosophy that guided a lifetime of grassroots activism: that profound changes had to take place in the power structures of Caribbean societies to bring social justice to its peoples, and that those who persevered in seeking to revive the past were doomed. This edition makes this classic novel available in paperback for the first time in years.

"Unique . . . a wonderful collection that will receive much attention." --Barbara Christian, University of California at Berkeley "The panorama of insights and visions is vast . . . the context of women's writings is a broadening link, connecting these writers with their contemporaries in other cultures around the world." --Gregory Rabassa "Provides wonderful insights into writing by women from the Caribbean." --J. Michael Dash, The University of the West Indies This collection of short stories features moving tales from the rich Caribbean oral tradition, stories that question women's traditional roles, present women's perspectives on the history of Caribbean slavery and colonialism, and convey the beautiful cadences of the language of Caribbean women. It offers the general reader a broad selection of the themes, styles, and techniques characteristic of contemporary women's fiction in the Caribbean. There are twenty-seven enjoyable and vibrant tales in this anthology, some of them originally written in English, others in French, Dutch, and Spanish. There are writers from Guadeloupe, Dominica, Jamaica, Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Martinique, Antigua, Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Surinam. Along with stories by well-known writers such as Jean Rhys, Jamaica Kincaid, Michelle Cliff, Maryse Conde, and Rosario Ferre, the anthology also includes first-rate stories by lesser-known but equally talented writers. The collection also contains a critical introduction, biographical notes, and a bibliography. Carmen C. Esteves is assistant professor in the department of Romance languages at Lehman College-CUNY. She has translated into English works by Latin American women such as Magali Garcia Ramis and Elena Poniatowska. Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert is associate professor of Puerto Rican studies at Lehman College-CUNY. She has published many articles on Caribbean writers, and has translated many works into English, including Love (Amour) by the Haitian writer Marie Chauvet.

This volume brings together scholars working in different languages-Creole, French, English, Spanish-and modes of cultural production-literature, art, film, music-to suggest how best to model courses that impart the rich, vibrant, and multivalent aspects of the Caribbean in the classroom. Essays focus on discussing how best to cross languages, histories, and modes of discourse. Instead of relying on available paradigms that depend on Western ways of thinking, the essays recommend methods to develop a pan-Caribbean perspective in relation to notions of the self, uses of language, gender hierarchies, and ideas of nationhood. Contributors represent various disciplines, work in one of the several languages of the Caribbean, and offer essays that reflect different cadres of expertise.