Caribbean Literature In Transition, 1970-2020
The period from the 1970s to the present day has produced an extraordinarily rich and diverse body of Caribbean writing that has been widely acclaimed. Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1970-2020 traces the region”s contemporary writings across the established genres of prose, poetry, fiction and drama into emerging areas of creative non-fiction, memoir and speculative fiction with a particular attention on challenging the narrow canon of Anglophone male writers. It maps shifts and continuities between late twentieth century and early twenty-first century Caribbean literature in terms of innovations in literary form and style, the changing role and place of the writer, and shifts in our understandings of what constitutes the political terrain of the literary and its sites of struggle. Whilst reaching across language divides and multiple diasporas, it shows how contemporary Caribbean Literature has focused its attentions on social complexity and ongoing marginalizations in its continued preoccupations with identity, belonging and freedoms.
Ronald Cummins is an Associate Professor in queer and postcolonial literatures in the Department of English at Brock University. His current book project, Queer Marronage and Caribbean Writing, examines the work of Dionne Brand, Michelle Cliff, Shani Mootoo and Patricia Powell and their representations of the figure of the Maroon—the runaway slave—in narratives which explore questions of sexual citizenship, gender and identity politics in the contemporary Caribbean.
Other publications from this author include: