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.

Challenges canonical accounts with writings and critical perspectives that emphasize the social complexity and cultural multiplicity of Caribbean writings.

About the Author
Ronald Cummings is Associate Professor of Postcolonial Studies in the Department of English Language and Literature at Brock University. His work focuses on representations of marronage and queerness in Caribbean literature. His work has been published in Small Axe, The Journal of Postcolonial Writing, the Journal of West Indian Literature and Transforming Anthropology. He is co-editor of the Literature Encyclopedia volume on Anglophone Writing and Culture of Central America and the Caribbean. https://www.litencyc.com Alison Donnell is Professor of Modern Literatures in English and Head of School of Literature, Creative Writing and Drama at the University of East Anglia. She has published widely on Caribbean and Black British writings, with a particular emphasis on challenging orthodox literary histories and recovering women's voices. She is the author of Twentieth Century Caribbean Literature (2006) and Caribbean Queer: Creolized Sexualities and the Literary Imagination in the Anglo-Caribbean (2021), as well as co-editor (with Michael A. Bucknor) of The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature (2011). She leads a major project funded by the Leverhulme Trust: 'Caribbean Literary Heritage: recovering the lost past and safeguarding the future'.

Reviews
'Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1970-2020 will remain a rich source for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars within Caribbean studies, diaspora studies, postcolonial studies, and performance studies who are interested in the political, cultural, and social life of the literary imagination ... this volume functions as a necessary reflection on some of the major developments in Caribbean literary production over the past fifty years.' Jovante Anderson, Journal of West Indian Literature
'The new and timely perspectives on migration, gender, and the environment, amongst other topics, enable this series to bring attention to an incredibly diverse canon of writers, literary forms, and historical contexts. In doing so, the volumes invite readers to revisit established figures - with Walcott and Naipaul still looming large - whilst also re-examining Caribbean literary history to include a corpus of voices that are not necessarily anglophone or male-centric. For this reason, the series deserves to lay the foundations of new critical explorations into the heterogeneity and global scope of Caribbean creativity from its roots in the colonial past through to its many fluid and fragmentary strands in the present.' Matthew Whittle, Journal of Postcolonial Writing



Book Information
ISBN 9781108474009
Author Ronald Cummings
Format Hardback
Page Count 486
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 810g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 158mm * 32mm