Caribbean-British travel writing, 1958-2018

Aatkar, S, 2019. Caribbean-British travel writing, 1958-2018. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

This thesis examines anglophone Caribbean-British travel writing published between 1958 and 2018. The texts it discusses reflect on and shape the Caribbean-British relationship as their authors represent Britain from a Caribbean perspective, articulate a Caribbean-British identity, and depict Britain's presence in the Caribbean. Focussing predominantly on travel narratives which are out of print or have received scant scholarly attention, the thesis combines approaches from postcolonial and travel writing studies to analyse how Caribbean-British travel writers engage with Western understandings of travel writing.

Chapter One considers how, in his With a Carib Eye (1958), Edgar Mittelholzer writes back to exoticised representations of the Caribbean perpetuated by English travel writers. Chapter Two examines the dual position of insider and outsider that Amryl Johnson articulates in her Sequins for a Ragged Hem (1988), and how she attempts to achieve a sense of belonging through cultural performativity and by writing herself into a Caribbean literary tradition. Chapter Three introduces and explores the relationship between postcolonial flânerie and counter-mapping in Ferdinand Dennis's Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain (1988) and in Caryl Phillips's The Atlantic Sound (2000). Chapter Four discusses the representation of colonial education in Jamaica Kincaid's 'On Seeing England for the First Time' (1991), V.S. Naipaul's The Enigma of Arrival (1987), and Stuart Hall's Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands (2017). It argues that, in Caribbean contexts, this colonial pedagogy represents a form of armchair travel because of the intense engagement with place that it encourages. Chapter Five attends to the relationship between ethnicity and travel blogging and inspects how the Caribbean bloggers Patrick and Steve Bennett, Savita Ragoo, and Francesca Murray represent the region in their work.

By examining a range of Caribbean-British travel writing, the thesis shows how travel writers use the genre, which is often associated with empire and colonialism, for their own purposes to explore or arrive at a sense of identity.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Aatkar, S.
Date:	November 2019
Rights:	This work is the intellectual property of the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the owner of the Intellectual Property Rights.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Arts and Humanities
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	15 Oct 2020 14:41
Last Modified:	31 May 2021 15:15
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/41327

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