'The African Presence in Caribbean Literature' revisited: Recovering the politics of imagined co-belonging 1930-2005

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Donnell, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8722-6974 (2015) 'The African Presence in Caribbean Literature' revisited: Recovering the politics of imagined co-belonging 1930-2005. Research in African Literatures, 46 (4). pp. 35-55. ISSN 1527-2044

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Abstract

Working outward from Edward Kamau Brathwaite's landmark 1974 essay, textquotedblleftThe African Presence in Caribbean Literature,textquotedblright this article explores the fuller history of the idea of Africa in anglophone Caribbean critical and literary works from the 1930s to the 2000s. It demonstrates that earlier, now forgotten Caribbean critics drew on imperfect and incomplete Caribbean literary imaginings of Africa to frame a counter-colonial politics of identity. The essay also brings back into view writings by Una Marson, Victor Stafford Reid, and Derek Walcott that expressed a different politics of solidarity based on the shared experience of colonial violence. Readings of recent literary works by Charlotte Williams and Nalo Hopkinson reveal the contemporary crafting of this relation around a heightened awareness of both presence and loss, history and imagination. Importantly, this gathering of sources and perspectives allows for an appreciation of the role that a reach toward Africa has played in articulations of Caribbeanness and its complex patterning of cultural co-belonging.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Special edition: What Is Africa to Me Now?
Uncontrolled Keywords: sdg 16 - peace, justice and strong institutions ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/peace_justice_and_strong_institutions
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Modern and Contemporary Writing Research Group
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Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 28 Jun 2017 05:06
Last Modified: 22 Oct 2022 02:50
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63923
DOI: 10.2979/reseafrilite.46.4.35

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