During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Caribbean was known as the 'grave of Europeans'. At the apex of British colonialism in the region between 1764 and 1834, the rapid spread of disease amongst colonist, enslaved and indigenous populations made the Caribbean notorious as one of the deadliest places on earth. Drawing on historical accounts from physicians, surgeons and travellers alongside literary works, Emily Senior traces the cultural impact of such widespread disease and death during the Romantic age of exploration and medical and scientific discovery. Focusing on new fields of knowledge such as dermatology, medical geography and anatomy, Senior shows how literature was crucial to the development and circulation of new medical ideas, and that the Caribbean as the hub of empire played a significant role in the changing disciplines and literary forms associated with the transition to modernity.

Significant study of colonial Caribbean literatures in the context of the high rates of disease and death in the region.

About the Author
Emily Senior is Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London. She has had articles published in the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Eighteenth-Century Studies and Atlantic Studies.


Book Information
ISBN 9781108404198
Author Emily Senior
Format Paperback
Page Count 303
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 450g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 150mm * 15mm