Title: The Post-Columbus Syndrome : Identities, Cultural Nationalism, and Commemorations in the Caribbean /
Authors: Viala, Fabienne,
Year: 2014
Subjects: Caribbean literature History and criticism.; Caribbean literature (English) History and criticism; National characteristics, Caribbean, in literature.; HISTORY / Caribbean & West Indies / General.; LITERARY CRITICISM / General.; LITERARY CRITICISM / Caribbean & Latin American.; LITERARY CRITICISM American General.; Caribbean literature.; Caribbean literature (English); National characteristics, Caribbean, in literature.
Abstract: "The islands of the Caribbean demonstrated a complex and heterogeneous response the 500th anniversary of the "Discovery of the New World". Feeling threatened by new forms of exploitation at the time, they responded by narrating their heritage and commemorating their hybrid identity in scenarios meant to protect a sense of national belonging. Columbus, as a hero of both Spanish and colonial history, became a reservoir of metaphors with which confront anxieties of the present with myths of the past. Commissions to debate the meaning of Columbus's arrival in the region were launched nationally on some islands, with different and uneven consequences in the commemorative public sphere in the Hispanic, English and French Caribbean. Jamaica condemned Columbus as a pirate; the Dominican Republic commemorated him as a Hispanic godfather, but Haiti toppled his statue. In Cuba and in Puerto Rico, the Taíno heritage was at the forefront of the commemorations, while in Guadeloupe and Martinique, Columbus was publically trialled"--
Contents: Machine generated contents note: -- Introduction: The Post-Columbus Syndrome: A Comparative Approach to Caribbean Memory in the Longue Dure;e PART I: POST-COLUMBUS SYSTEMS OF MEMORY: RECYCLING HERITAGE IN THE CARIBBEAN 1. Transculturation as Commemoration: Fernando Ortiz, the Cuban Longue Dure;e, and the Role of Columbus2. Edward Kamau Brathwaite and Transnational Anamnesis: Creolising Columbus in the English Caribbean Collective Memory 3. The Snake, the Shore, and Columbus: Edouard Glissant's Anamnesis of the French département d'outre-mer4. Anamnesis, Chaos, and Columbus: Antonio Beni;tez Rojo and the Caribbean 'feedback-machine' PART II: ANAMNESIS CARIBENSIS: COLUMBUS IN 19925. Columbus, the Memorious: Commemorations of the 500th Anniversary of the Discovery of the New World in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic 6. Christopher Columbus in the English Caribbean: Commemoration and Performance in Jamaica 7. Columbus in Martinique and Guadeloupe: Amnesia and Commemoration in the French Outremer 8. Columbus, the Scapegoat, and the Zombie: Performance and Tales of the National Memory in HaitiConclusion: Towards an Archipelagic Memory.