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Subject Area: Caribbean Studies
Wardle, Huon2000 0-7734-7552-4 256 pages
This ethnography of social life in Kingston, Jamaica, is also a study of the relationship between two major, often conflictive, forces in current cultural experience, community and cosmopolitanism. People from the Caribbean – subject to slavery, the plantation economy, and labor migration – have experienced one of the longest exposures to a global political and economic order of any social grouping. For centuries, Jamaicans have lived at a crossroads of transnational economic social and cultural dynamics. The Jamaican social milieu is characterized by massively heterogeneous and creative cultural activity, violent social fragmentation and individuation, as well as a celebration of the role of geographical mobility in the establishment of personality. A central proposition in this book is that Jamaicans in the capital, Kingston, are still living out the aesthetic and moral consequences and contradictions of the Enlightenment and modernity. The author draws a parallel between Jamaican understandings of the self, and the late philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The ethnographic material presented here, derived from two years fieldwork in Kingston, suggest that Jamaicans understand themselves as global citizens. This sense of self can be identified across multiple contexts – oral performance, music, kinship and friendship, economics and politics. In light of Jamaican cultural experience, the book argues for a reframing of ethnographic practice as an explicitly cosmopolitan cultural practice.
Martínez-Dueñas, José Luis
2001 0-7734-7475-7 204 pages
This work provides a fresh and illuminating approach by combining close analysis and interpretation with a perspective that is not restricted to current post-colonial or even Caribbean readings of Walcott’s work. It explores his poetry in relation to the traditional canon, his departures from the canon and its authors, his critical position in relation to it. It examines the complex relations that his poetic discourse establishes with previous poetic registers, with its own problematic nature, and the interplay of poetic meaning, landscape, and history. Includes an interview with Derek Walcott.
Munford, Clarence J.
1992 0-7734-9433-2 379 pages
Along with reflections on the slavery-capitalism-racism causal chain, this book reveals the tight bond between the Black West Indies and Africa through analysis of socio-political conditions in Africa, and of the ethnic origins of diaspora Africans. The years from 1625 to 1715 are the time when the scaffolding of the plantation slave economy was erected. It triggered the dialectic between the slave mode of extracting surplus labor from captive Africans on the one side, and the profit exigencies of nascent capitalism, on the other. This dialectic made the installation of the capitalist mode of production in the western hemisphere a peculiarly racist phenomenon. This book seeks to show also that the lasting community of Blacks which emerged in the French West Indies during those years was permanently conditioned by this dialectic. The period from 1625-1715 has been neglected.
Henao, Eda B.
2003 0-7734-6551-0 162 pages
Bissessar, Ann Marie
2008 0-7734-5054-8 284 pages
Unlike the existing literature on public sector reform which utilizes the Weberian-control model, a networking system, or performance and results-oriented criteria to explain the cause and context of public reform in the Caribbean, this work applies game theory.
Williams, John
1995 0-7734-2742-2
The story of Dor (pronounced doe), a Haitian Voodoo priest, is captured with rich imagery and compelling rhythms. The setting is Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. There, Williams has created a place where the lines between good and evil, real and imagined, are blurred, as if two universes had converged. There, for a brief period, the powers of God and Satan are intertwined and the reader participates in questioning good and evil and whether there is a level of corruption that may be good. Dor is a poem of salvation, of sin and punishment, told in heroic blank verse.
Ossers, Manuel A.
2009 0-7734-3888-2 196 pages
Juan Bosch (1909-2001), president of the Dominican Republic in 1963, was a politician and writer. This work is a compilation of essays on the short stories of Juan Bosch (1909-2001). They include studies on cenesthesia, hyperbole, expressionism, impressionism, time, magic realism, myths, female characters in a social, political, and historical context; and children characters with their vital thematic and structural roles.
Misir, Prem
2006 0-7734-5552-3 268 pages
Addresses the allegations of racism as one of the major themes in political commentaries in the multi-ethnic Caribbean and its Diaspora. The book advocates an understanding of inter and intra-ethnic class structure as a useful conceptual tool to address the issues of ethnic cleavage, racism, and discrimination, using a power-conflict framework that illustrates that inter and intra-ethnic class structure emphasizes economic stratification, caste, internal colonialism, and a diversity of class-based and Marxist theories.
Roberts, Matthew W.
1992 0-7734-9837-0 200 pages
This study compares the industrial development of Jamaica and Mauritius via Export Processing Zones (EPZs). The central questions in this research are: How, in theory and practice, do EPZs serve the development goals and policies of the countries; what factors are responsible for differences in the performance of the EPZs; what are the major lessons from Mauritius's and Jamaica's experiences with EPZs regarding the role of the state in development; and can the EPZs play an evolutionary role in the process of economic development in these countries.
Rodríguez-Henríquez, Rafael
2010 0-7734-1330-8 208 pages
This study examines four novels by Marcio Veloz Maggiolo. It reveals the fundamental sources used in these novels in constructing the concept of the “historical imagination”. The analysis shows that the traditional concept of “official history” is rejected to give rise to an eclectic view of the past that embraces scientific and philosophical knowledge, the voices of the marginalized “other”, folkloric manifestations, and the imaginative reflections of the characters and narrators. This book contains one color photograph.
Dorsinville, Max
2005 0-7734-6053-5 252 pages
This first-person narrative, in both French and English, by a sixteen-year-old Haitian told in diary form in 1959 parallels the coming to power of Castro in Cuba and contrasts the continued role of François (“Papa Doc”) Duvalier in Haiti. Both historical figures hover over the narrative and represent the hope and despair the narrator identifies as rite of passage away from his native Haiti, torn between his upbringing in a French Canadian boarding school and an apartment in Queens, New York, with his expatriate parents. This experimental book mixes languages in giving form to the process of individual growth. It uses Canada’s two official languages as formal references to the poles of cultural integration the narrator is called upon by upbringing to recognize and accept. Thus the narrative begins in French and subsequently shifts to English, symbolically characterizing the narrator’s growing up as a process embedded in the changing form of language.
Regis, Humphrey A.
2015 1-4955-0365-8 132 pages
This work describes changes in the Jamaican and Caribbean reggae culture by examining the relationship between mass communication and the cultural domination of African, Caribbean, and other less powerful peoples that has been based primarily on importation/exportation theoretical framework of cultural domination. The author argues this importation/ exportation framework does not acknowledge the role of African, Caribbean, and other current less powerful peoples as originators in what history indicates is the millennia-old process of domination by the more powerful.
Taylor, Kenwyn M
2011 0-7734-1525-4 516 pages
This work argues that when leaders are aware of the interaction of leadership, social entrepreneurship, and economic management, they are more likely to succeed when guiding Caribbean countries from economic crisis to recovery.
Hope, Wendy P.
2005 0-7734-6250-3 392 pages
This book is significant to the work of educators who work with diverse student populations. For many educators including administrators, principals, and teachers the greatest challenge is that of meeting the educational goals of society while responding to the needs of the growing numbers of diverse students within the classroom. As a result, the current emphasis on meeting the needs of all students in the multicultural inclusive classroom require the extension of the conversation beyond multiculturalism, multiple intelligences and learning styles to include the social and political realities that influence students' learning and success. This book offers educators who are increasingly faced with diverse, multi-cultural inclusive classrooms an opportunity to find a place to start the process of revisionary pedagogical practices that validate and affirm the experiences of their students.
To this end, teacher education programs provide a relevant context for revision and rethinking of both the content and processes of teaching to benefit all students in a diverse, multicultural, inclusive classroom, as possibilities are inherent to prepare and equip prospective teachers with the knowledge that will shape and develop their philosophy of teaching and learning to include reflective practices in addressing the needs of diverse learners. As a result, this book calls attention to the central role of culture on the work of teachers; the development of methods by which culture and ethnicity are made vital components of the classroom experience; an examination of the best practices of teachers who work with students from diverse backgrounds; an understanding of the social, linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the communities they serve; and exploration of the ways in which collaboration with the communities they serve can be fostered The inclusion of these focused areas in teacher preparation programs as well as ongoing professional development will engage teachers in reflective teaching, through an examination of their assumptions, perceptions, beliefs and instructional practices that influence the pedagogical decisions and practices they employ when working with diverse students.
Ossers, Manuel A.
2010 0-7734-1382-0 356 pages
The purpose of this work has been to study the narrative of Juan Bosch from the point of view of stylistic analysis. Such an analysis allows for an in depth examination of the sensorial dynamics as the means of expression of the author. By taking a stylistic approach to Juan Bosch’s short stories, I have drawn conclusions on the relationship between the expressive means selected by Bosch and his intent when making such selections.
In Part I, I have studied the expression in terms of sensorial experience. I hope to have established the degree of effectiveness with which the author is able to transmit his sensations (and those of his characters as he wishes the reader to perceive them) by means of the images produced through the word.
In Part II, I have studied the expression in terms of the intentional intensification of the word or phrase. I hope to have demonstrated the fidelity and originality with which Bosch interprets the existential reality of his characters and the natural or social milieu in which it takes place. This work will be of interest to scholars of the literatures of the Dominican Republic, the Spanish Caribbean, and Latin American in general.
Roberts, Nicole
2009 0-7734-4921-3 340 pages
This book redresses an imbalance in Latin American scholarship, arguing for inclusion of more Afro-Hispanic poets in the Caribbean literary canon. The poets are Nancy Morejón, Pedro Pérez Sarduy, Exilia Saldaña, and Efraín Nadereau from Cuba, Aída Cartagena Portalatín, Blas Jiménez and Sherezada (Chiqui) Vicioso from The Dominican Republic and the Puerto Ricans Mayra Santos Febres and Magaly Quiñones.
Parris, Ralph L.
2015 0-7734-4271-5 192 pages
This book is about the origin and evolution of the steel band orchestra and its diffusion in the Caribbean and beyond with special attention given to the nature and evolution of its origin and spatial movement within the culture. The Steel band was created by descendants of African Captives in the Caribbean who struggled to retain some elements of their culture while simultaneously rejecting elements of the captive culture that controlled their lives for three centuries.
Jurney, Florence Ramond
2009 0-7734-4909-4 228 pages
This book analyzes the literary representation of the island in Caribbean women’s literature as a key component of the gendered construction of diasporic identity.
Theophile - LaFond, Anestine
2015 1-4955-0326-7 204 pages
This work seeks to add a perspective to the telecommunications discussion through the study of five poor, small islands in the Caribbean chain. The book contributes to needed research about economic globalization with specific focus on the telecommunication liberalization process in the Eastern Caribbean and the role of government and other major stakeholders. It is a well-researched, well referenced text suitable for scholars, practitioners, researchers and consultants alike.
Davis, Viola
2015 1-4955-0402-6 332 pages
This work examines the dramatic oeuvre of Derek Walcott in order to make the case that he is engaged as a playwright, in creating a “Creole” drama- a drama that bears the special marks of its Caribbean origin and setting and that embodies the hybrid nature of Caribbean history, culture and personality. This Creole reality is the result of the historical coming together of European and African values within the physical location of the Caribbean islands. The idea of “Creole” is being used to describe the result of the fusion of these three realities and this result is seen to contain a multi-cultural plentitude that is “Characteristic” of the cultural and intellectual reality of the Caribbean.
Zamor, Riché C.
2001 0-7734-7488-9 204 pages
Del Valle, Tony
2001 0-7734-7641-5 336 pages
Little study as been done on the Puerto Rican family as the nexus for the Puerto Rican youngster’s cultural experience and literacy. Puerto Ricans are the second largest Latino group in Chicago. Two-thirds of Puerto Ricans in Chicago have not finished high school; they are at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale; and over a quarter of Puerto Rican households receive welfare assistance. This study examines the patterns of language, literacy and learning in Puerto Rican families. It provides a basis for understanding the unique ways in which Puerto Ricans use language in the home, at school, and in other public spheres, and for developing the ‘bridging skills’ necessary to attain genuine multi-literacy.