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

The nation-state of Trinidad and Tobago offers a unique nation-space, as Homi K Bhabha would say, for the study of the forces and ideologies of nationalism. This book reveals how this ethnically diverse nation, independent for less than forty years, has provided fertile ground for the creative tension between the imagination of the writer and the official discourse on nationalism. Harney argues that this discourse has in turn been embedded in a struggle that propelled the nation's story. He explores the influences on the sense of national identity caused by migration and the ethnicization of migrant communities in the cities. Adding to the comparative tone of much of this book, models of nationalism and ethnicity, often based on other societies, are tested against the imaginings of Trinidad by such essayists as VS Naipaul, CLR James, Willi Chen, Valerie Belgrave and Earl Lovelace. Using the wealth of imaginative literature produced by Trinidadians at home and abroad over the last forty years, together with European-based scholarship on theories of nationalism, this book provides a fascinating understanding of the forging of a national identity. CONTENTS......Page 6 INTRODUCTION......Page 10 Reading the Nation......Page 12 Post-Colonial Theory......Page 14 Theories of Nationalism......Page 15 Caribbean Studies......Page 16 Readings of Trinidad......Page 18 Trinidad Imagined......Page 25 Readings of the Caribbean......Page 26 Reading Literary History......Page 31 1 Beyond Nationalism: Literary Nation-building in the Work of Earl Lovelace and Michael Anthony......Page 40 Dilemmas of Literary Nationalism......Page 43 Class Struggle and Anti-Colonial Struggle......Page 44 The Struggle for the Trinidadian......Page 47 The Independent Imagination in the Independent Nation......Page 51 The Practice of Peoplehood......Page 57 2 Men Go Have Respect For All O' We: Valerie Belgrave's Invention of Trinidad......Page 61 Inventing the Mixed Nation......Page 62 The Metadiscourse of Race......Page 64 The Counter-discourse of Class......Page 65 History against Itself......Page 69 Nationalism without Equality......Page 71 Inventing the Rules of Class......Page 73 Mistresses to the National Body......Page 74 3 Willi Chen and Carnival Nationalism in Trinidad......Page 80 Chinese Text of Identity......Page 82 Nation of Imagi-nations......Page 86 An Indian Text of Identity......Page 88 Nation as Street Theatre......Page 91 Theories on Containing Chen......Page 95 Chen's Carnival......Page 96 4 Samuel Selvon and the Chronopolitics of a Diasporic Nationalism......Page 100 Selvon Rediscovered Discovering Trinidad......Page 102 The Challenge of Trinidadian Identity......Page 106 Challenging the Sociology of Race Relations in Britain......Page 109 The Chronopolitics of Creolization......Page 113 Predatory Creolization......Page 119 5 Neil Bissoondath and Migrant Liberation from the Nation......Page 127 The Nation Abandoned......Page 130 The Uninhabitable Text of the Nation......Page 134 The Politics of Imagined History......Page 137 Canada Re-imagined......Page 140 6 VS. Naipaul and the Pitfalls of Nationalism......Page 148 Dissent in the Nationalist Project......Page 149 The Janus Face of Nationalism......Page 152 Reading Internal Oppression......Page 159 Reading Revolutionary Grenada......Page 163 Reading Naipaul as a Counter-revolutionary......Page 165 Inventing the Nationless Cosmopolitan......Page 167 The South–South Cosmopolitan......Page 169 Nationalism as Dependency Theory......Page 171 7 C.L.R. James and Egalitarian Nationalism in the Caribbean......Page 178 An Alternative Nationalist Project......Page 182 Caribbean History Regained......Page 184 ‘The Supreme Artist’......Page 185 James as National Artist......Page 188 The Nationalist Project Begun......Page 191 The Artist as Product of the People......Page 195 The Nation as Product of the People......Page 196 CONCLUSION: Mud Mas: Playing Identity......Page 201 REFERENCES......Page 206 B......Page 217 C......Page 218 F......Page 219 J......Page 220 M......Page 221 N......Page 222 R......Page 223 W......Page 224 Z......Page 225 Annotation. The nation-state of Trinidad and Tobago offers a unique nation-space, as Homi K Bhabha would say, for the study of the forces and ideologies of nationalism. This book reveals how this ethnically diverse nation, independent for less than forty years, has provided fertile ground for the creative tension between the imagination of the writer and the official discourse on nationalism. Harney argues that this discourse has in turn been embedded in a struggle that propelled the nation's story. He explores the influences on the sense of national identity caused by migration and the ethnicization of migrant communities in the cities. Adding to the comparative tone of much of this book, models of nationalism and ethnicity, often based on other societies, are tested against the imaginings of Trinidad by such essayists as VS Naipaul, CLR James, Willi Chen, Valerie Belgrave and Earl Lovelace. Using the wealth of imaginative literature produced by Trinidadians at home and abroad over the last forty years, together with European-based scholarship on theories of nationalism, this book provides a fascinating understanding of the forging of a national identity 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 (40% African origin, 40-45% East Indian origin, plus those of Syrian, Chinese, Portuguese, French and English descent), independent for less than forty years, 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 in Trinidad and Tobago. This discourse has in turn been embedded in a struggle that propels the nation's story. Following on from this background, the study examines the changes and influences on the sense of nationalism and peoplehood caused by migration and the ethnicization of migrant communities in the metropoles Adding to the comparative tone of much of this book, models of nationalism and ethnicity, often based on other societies, are tested against the imaginings of Trinidad by such essayists as V S Naipaul, C L R James, Willi Chen, Valerie Belgrave and Earl Lovelace