Description
Book SynopsisIn Simon Gikandi's view, Caribbean literature and postcolonial literature more generally negotiate an uneasy relationship with the concepts of modernism and modernitya relationship in which the Caribbean writer, unable to escape a history encoded by Europe, accepts the challenge of rewriting it. Drawing on contemporary deconstructionist theory, Gikandi looks at how such Caribbean writers as George Lamming, Samuel Selvon, Alejo Carpentier, C. L. R. James, Paule Marshall, Merle Hodge, Zee Edgell, and Michelle Cliff have attempted to confront European modernism.
Trade ReviewGikandi’s pursuit of his broader conception of ‘Caribbean modernism’ pays ample dividends in the space it gives him to read the novels with something like the detailed attention they all deserve but rarely enjoy. Writing in Limbo takes the fiction of the Caribbean seriously and helps integrate its study into a wider American problematic. This is a powerfully argued book written in a limpid style. It marks its terrain with great assurance and conducts its textual analyses with a fine attention to detail. Writing in Limbo is the best book on its topic and a significant advance in the criticism of Caribbean literature.
-- Peter Hulme * NWIG: New West Indian Guide *
