Nationalism and Identity: Culture and the Imagination in a Caribbean Diaspora

by Stefano Harney

Book Overview

The nation-state of Trinidad and Tobago offers a unique case for the study of the forces and ideologies of nationalism. This book reveals how this ethnically diverse nation of people of African, East Indian, Syrian, Chinese, Portuguese, French and English descent has provided fertile ground for the creative tension between the imagination of the writer in his or her search for a habitable text of identity and the official discourse on nationalism...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9766400164
• ISBN13: 9789766400163
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: University of the West Indies Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Cultural studies in the Caribbean

Using both political and literary texts, this book illuminates postcolonial nationalist thought in Trinidad and Tobago. Applying the British cultural studies tradition, the author adds an ethnographic knowledge that makes for a rich reading. Highly recommended.

Cosmopolitan Trinidad

The value of this book is that readers learn of the incredible cosmopolitan history of this postcolonial nation. They also learn how creative its 1.3 million people have been in the arts, literature, music, and carnival. I recommend this book unreseverdly.

Diasporic Insights

This book is an authoritive look at postcolonial Trinidad from a cultural studies perspective. It blends autonomist, feminist, and poststructuralism impulses to give the reader a rich picture of diasporic Caribbean experience. Highly recommended.

Reading Diasporic Nationalism

Inspired by the work and writings of C.L.R. James, this book looks for the revolution inside nationalist thinking. Along the way the author deploys a sophisticated marxism, augmented by feminist and poststructuralist sensibilities, to examine the appropriation of nationalism. Most importantly the book retains a respect for the importance of art in popular life. Highly recommended.

Diasporic Analysis

The competence and thorough knowledge of the author is immediately apparent in this well-written book. The author's chapter on Valerie Belgrave and the misuse of the feminine to inscribe the nation was particularly rich. The chapter warns against the commercialization of nationalism in popular culture, but at the same time the book recognized popular culture as the source of democratic impulses in nationalism. A sophisticated analysis with much rich detail of Caribbean life in Trinidad and in the diaspora.