The enduring local: representations of land and home in the Anglo-Caribbean

This dissertation draws on approaches in ecocriticism, critical race theory, and decolonialism to interrogate the ways in which Caribbean space is represented in Anglo-Caribbean literature. Using archival research, visual culture, literary criticism, and Caribbean history, it traces how colonialism shaped the current use of the land. This legacy is seen in the willful ecological destruction of the land, the history of violent labor practices, and the economic and ecological vulnerability of the islands. These violent practices were strategically employed by the early Anglo—colonists like Richard Ligon and William Blathwayt who sought to flatten Caribbean space into colonial intellectual property. Early nationalist writers, and subsequently literature from the contemporary Caribbean, wrestled with this flattening by indicating the ways in which the land was knowable among the locals, and how this knowledge differed from the colonial flattening. This dissertation argues that contemporary Caribbean authors like Shivanee Ramlochan, Dionne Brand, and Shani Mootoo create local intimate spaces and use queer love between women to reimagine a more inclusive local space no longer tied to neocolonial economic models. Building on the work of Belinda Edmondson and Shalini Puri, this dissertation posits douglarization, the cultural hybridization of the Afro- and Indo- diasporas in the Anglo-Caribbean, as a means of creating a localized home space that addresses the socio-economic concerns of the descendants of plantation laborers. These 21st century authors plot a path forward from the narrower, masculinist Anglo-Caribbean literatures of the early nationalist period as practiced by Derek Walcott, proposing a Caribbean future that is broadly reflective of the knowledge and desires of contemporary Anglo-Caribbean people.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference