Title: The poetics of empire
Description: First published in 1764, The Sugar Cane is a major work in the history of Anglophone Caribbean literature. It is the only poem written in the Caribbean before the twentieth century to achieve a place in the Western 'canon'. Grainger wrote a "West India Georgic", challenging assumptions about poetic diction and the proper subject matter of poetry, and boldly asserting the importance of the Caribbean to the eighteenth-century British empire. This is the first reliable text and critical study of the poem, setting it within the context of Grainger's life and work. -- Book cover.
Subjects: Agriculture in literature, English Didactic poetry, History and criticism, Imperialism, Imperialism in literature, In literature, Plantation life, Plantation life in literature, Poetry, Sugarcane, Sugarcane industry, English poetry, history and criticism, Poetry (poetic works by one author)
Places: Caribbean Area
People: James Grainger (1721?-1766)