Contemporary Caribbean Women's Poetry: Making Style (Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures)

Contemporary Caribbean Women's Poetry provides detailed readings of individual poems by women poets whose work has not yet received the sustained critical attention it deserves. These readings are contextualized both within Caribbean cultural debates and postcolonial and feminist critical discourses in a lively and engaged way; revisiting nationalist debates as well as topical issues about the performance of gendered and raced identities within poetic discourse. Newly available in paperback, this book is groundbreaking reading for all those interested in postcolonialism, Gender Studies, Caribbean Studies and contemporary poetry. This book represents the very first sustained account of Caribbean women's poetry and offers investigation of an exciting range of innovative texts. The discussion is situated in relation to the predominantly male tradition of Caribbean poetry, and explores the factors which have resulted in the relative marginality of women poets within nationalistic poetic discourses. Denise deCaires Narain employs a range of cutting-edge feminist and postcolonial approaches to focus on a wide range of themes, such as orality, sexuality, the body, performance and poetic identity. Contemporary Caribbean Women's Poetry provides detailed readings of individual poems by women poets whose work has not yet received the sustained critical attention it deserves. These readings are contextualized both within Caribbean cultural debates and postcolonial and feminist critical discourses in a lively and engaged way; revisiting nationalist debates as well as topical issues about the performance of gendered and raced identities within poetic discourse. It will be ground-breaking reading for all those interested in postcolonialism, Gender Studies, Caribbean Studies and contemporary poetry. EEn......Page 1 Front Cover......Page 2 Back Cover......Page 3 Contemporary Carribbean Women's Poetry......Page 4 Preface......Page 5 Acknowledgements......Page 9 1. Literary mothers? - Una Marson and Phyllis Shand Allfrey......Page 10 2. The lure of the folk - Louise Bennett and the politics of Creole......Page 60 3. Speaking and performing the Creole word - The work of Valerie Bloom, Jean 'Binta' Breeze, Merle Collins and Amryl Johnson......Page 98 4. More body talk: righting or writing the body? The work of Lorna Goodison, Mahadai Das, Grace Nichols and Marlene Nourbese Philip......Page 157 5. Playing the field - Anthologizing, canonizing and problematizing Caribbean women's writing......Page 222 Bibliography......Page 258 Index......Page 265 Beginning this account of contemporary Caribbean women poets with a discussion of the work of Una Marson (1905-65) and Phyllis Shand Allfrey (1908-86) inevitably accords them foundational status as literary 'mother-figures'.