Women Writing the West Indies: Early Narratives, 1804-1939 (Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures)

This pioneering study surveys nineteenth- and twentieth-century narratives of the West Indies written by white women, English and Creole. It introduces a fascinating wealth of relatively unknown material and constitutes a timely interrogation of the supposed homogeneity of Caribbean discourse, especially with regard to 'race' and gender. This Study Of Previously Unknown Or Marginal West Indian Writing By Women, Queries The Accepted Wisdom That Women's Voices Were Absent From The Narrative Record Until The Late Twentieth Century. It Demonstrates That While Only A Few Texts By Non-white Women Have Survived, An Eclectic Body Of Work By White Women - Expatriate, Resident And Creole - Does Exist. Surveying A Sample Of Fascinating Material From Novels, Stores And Homilies, Memoirs, Letters, Travel Journals And Autobiographies, The Book Focuses On Who These Women Were, And What Kind Of Narratives They Produced. It Also Asks Whether These Can Be Subsumed Under A Single Classificatory Label, West Indian Women's Writing, And How The Narratives Construct The Region, For Those At Home And Those At The Centre, During A Particularly Important Period In The Formulation Of West Indian And English Identities.--book Jacket. 1. Defamiliarizing The Mistress: Representations Of White Women In The West Indies -- 2. With The Utmost Familiarity: Black And White Women -- 3. This Is Another World: Travel Narratives, Women And The Construction Of Tropical Landscape -- 4. Female El Dorado -- 5. Narratives Of Tainted Empire -- 6. Colonial Discourse And The Subaltern's Voice. Evelyn O'callaghan. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [181]-214) And Index.