Beyond Borders ― Cross-Culturalism and the Caribbean Canon

Beyond Borders is a multidisciplinary collection of essays with a focus on contemporary issues in Caribbean cultural studies. Culture and cultural identification are without a doubt highly charged political Goliaths with local and global ramifications. This is one of the reasons for the virtual boom the discipline has enjoyed, and the Caribbean is no exception. As a result, there is a growing demand for information in the field for both research and teaching purposes. The essays in this collection provide such a resource. They explore cross-cultural themes and issues across a range of disciplines that include literature, language, education, history and popular culture. They will interest a broad cross-section of regional and international readers, including a wide range of scholars, professional teachers, students and members of the general public wishing to understand the complex dynamics of Caribbean culture.The issues of cultural survival and negotiation with which most of these essays deal, serve to foreground a history of domination, resistance and marvellous transformations within and beyond the borders of this archipelago. It is no longer possible to pass culture off as simply a matter of commonalities, interests and values, as if politics and power were innocent of influencing what gets defined and consumed as culture. Beyond Borders: Cross-culturalism and the Caribbean Canon offers a forum for contemporary debates on Caribbean culture in its ongoing process of evolution.

Contributors: Jeannette Allsopp, Sandra Ingrid Gift, Barbara Lalla, George Lamming, Paula Morgan, Rex Nettleford, Joseph Pereira, Sandra Pouchet Paquet, Jennifer Rahim, Louis Regis, Brinsley Samaroo, Patricia Saunders, Leon Wainwright, Valerie Youssef Jennifer Rahim is Senior Lecturer of Literature and Co-ordinator of Literatures in English, Department of Liberal Arts, University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago. Her articles on Caribbean literature have appeared in the Journal of West Indian Literature, Small Axe, MaComere and Anthurium. Her other publications include two collections of poems and a short story collection, Songster and Other Stories.Barbara Lalla is Professor of Language and Literature, Campus Orator, Coordinator, Cultural Studies Research Project, University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago. Her numerous publications include Postcolonialisms: Caribbean Rereadings of Medieval English Discourse; Language in Exile and Voices in Exile, both co-authored and co-edited with Jean D=Costa; Defining Jamaican Fiction, English for Academic Purposes; and Arch of Fire, a novel, also translated into German, Flammedes Land, as well as articles on language history and literary discourse.