Description
Book SynopsisCutting across academic boundaries, this volume brings together scholars from different disciplines who have explored together the richness and complexity of colonial-era Caribbean theatre. The volume offers a series of original essays that showcase individual expertise in light of broader group discussions. Asking how we can research effectively and write responsibly about colonial-era Caribbean theatre today, our primary concern is methodology. Key questions are examined via new research into individual case studies on topics ranging from Cuban blackface, commedia dell’arte in Suriname and Jamaican oratorio to travelling performers and the influence of the military and of enslaved people on theatre in Saint-Domingue. Specifically, we ask what particular methodological challenges we as scholars of colonial-era Caribbean theatre face and what methodological solutions we can find to meet those challenges. Areas addressed include our linguistic limitations in the face of Caribbean multilingualism; issues raised by national, geographical or imperial approaches to the field; the vexed relationship between metropole and colony; and, crucially, gaps in the archive. We also ask what implications our findings have for theatre performance today – a question that has led to the creation of a new work set in a colonial theatre and outlined in the volume’s concluding chapter.
Trade Review“The volume’s biggest strength… lies in its attention to the silences and gaps in the archive, and its commitment to exploring ways to overcome them.” - Juliane Braun
“The attention given to methodology makes this collection extremely valuable and different from what exists.” - Laurence Marie
Table of ContentsList of Figures
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction, Julia Prest
Part I: The Pan-Caribbean
Chapter One. Studying the Colonial Caribbean: Combining Geographical and Imperial Approaches
Dexnell Peters
Chapter Two. Mobility as a Lens for Reading the History of Opera in the Colonial Caribbean
Charlotte Bentley
Chapter Three. Multilingual Approaches to Colonial-Era Caribbean Theatre Research: Challenges and Interventions
Susan Thomas
Part II: Approaches
Chapter Four. Connecting Metropole and Colony? Harlequin Travels to Suriname
Sarah J. Adams
Chapter Five. Problems of Framing: National or Colonial Approaches to Blackface Performance?
Jill Lane
Chapter Six. Contextualizing Late Eighteenth-Century Jamaican Oratorio: Obstacles and Opportunities
Wayne Weaver
Part III: Sources and Gaps
Chapter Seven. Silences in the Archives: The Mysterious One-Night Stand of John Fawcett’s Obi; or, Three-Finger’d Jack in Kingston, Jamaica (1862)
Jenna M. Gibbs
Chapter Eight. Using Military Documents to Study Colonial-Era Theatre and Performance in Saint-Domingue
Logan J. Connors
Chapter Nine. Uncovering Connections between Theatre and Slavery: Runaway Advertisements in Colonial Saint-Domingue and Beyond
Julia Prest
Chapter Ten. Knowledge Exchange Theatre and the Colonial Caribbean: Creating Placeholder
Catherine Bisset, Flavia d’Avila and Jaïrus Obayomi
