Description
Book SynopsisIt is commonly assumed that Caribbean culture is split into elite highbrow culture—which is considered derivative of Europe and not rooted in the Caribbean—and authentic working-class culture, which is often identified with such iconic island...
Trade ReviewCaribbean Middlebrow makes a major and original contribution to a field of study that is at once established and increasingly pursued: the status, definition, and involvement of the Caribbean middle class at a variety of levels and locations.... It is remarkable for the breadth of its interrogation of various popular culture genres across time without sacrificing analytical depth in the process. It is also a unique and updated point of departure for exploring the position and practices of the Caribbean middle class in relation to the working class.
-- Karla Slocum * New West Indian Guide *
In Caribbean Middlebrow, Edmondson accomplishes her goal of demonstrating the existence of an aspirational and leisure-oriented middlebrow culture in the Anglophone Caribbean from the mid-nineteenth century through the present. Her cultural study provides a corrective to the established view of a polarized Caribbean culture and compliments previous scholarship focused on the political orientation of the Caribbean's black and brown middle-class. Further scholarly inquiries into the cultural or even political, social, and economic development of this historically misrepresented segment of Caribbean society will likely benefit from Edmondson’s timely work.
-- Brandon Byrd * Caribbean Studies *
