Teaching, Reading, and Theorizing Caribbean Texts

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Teaching, Reading, and Theorizing Caribbean Texts explores alternative approaches to Caribbean texts from transnational and multilingual perspectives. The authors query what new systems and criteria can be implemented to rethink and remodel our theoretical and pedagogical corpus and alter the lenses through which we study Caribbean texts. Pulling from the Caribbeans global diaspora, the authors examine writers such as Roxane Gay, Esmeralda Santiago, Wilson Harris, and Gloria Anzalda in order to resituate the place of Caribbean texts in the classroom.

Each chapter argues for a reunification of Caribbean literature studiesrather than studying this body of text only in terms of a certain aspect of its history or culture, the authors necessitate the importance of analyzing these works from a pan-Caribbean perspective. This collection discusses the ideas of transcending individual disciplines and specialties to create global theories, overcoming pedagogical challenges when bringing Caribbean texts into the classroom, and (re)reading texts with the purpose of discovering new symbols, themes, and meanings.

Reviews

Jeanne Jgousso and Emily O'Dell question the dismemberment of Caribbean studies over the recent decades and call for a Pan-Caribbean perspective that moves beyond the traditional linguistic and national divide in the Caribbean. A beautifully written book, proposing exciting new pedagogical and theoretical approaches to explore Caribbean texts.--Charly Verstraet, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Teaching, Reading, and Theorizing Caribbean Texts by Jeanne Jgousso and Emily O'Dell is a necessary companion to the consideration of Caribbean literature from transnational and translocal perspectives. The volume's essays emphasize the polylingual and complex cultural contexts involved in the creation of Caribbean literature, and therefore, the necessary attenuation of these factors for its analysis. I recommend this book for anyone seeking innovative pedagogies in Caribbean Studies.--Solimar Otero, Indiana University-Bloomington

Author Bio

Emily A. O'Dell is lecturer of English at George College and State University.

Jeanne Jgousso is assistant professor of French and Francophone studies at Hollins University.