Transnational romance: The politics of desire in Caribbean novels by women

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dc.contributor.authorMeyers, Emily Taylor, 1979-
dc.date.accessioned2010-03-02T23:23:08Z
dc.date.available2010-03-02T23:23:08Z
dc.date.issued2009-06
dc.descriptionxi, 236 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.en_US
dc.description.abstractWriters in the Caribbean, like writers throughout the postcolonial world, return to colonial texts to rewrite the myths that justified and maintained colonial control. Exemplary of a widespread, regional phenomenon that begins at mid-century, writers such as Aimé Césaire and George Lamming take up certain texts such as Shakespeare's The Tempest and recast them in their own image. Postcolonial literary theory reads this act of rewriting the canon as a political one that speaks back to power and often advocates for political and cultural independence. Towards the end of the twentieth century and at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Caribbean women writers begin a new wave of rewriting that continues in this tradition, but with certain differences, not least of which is a focused attention to gender and sexuality and to the literary legacies of romance. In the dissertation I consider a number of novels from throughout the region that rewrite the romance, including Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), Maryse Condé's La migration des coeurs (1995), Mayra Santos-Febres's Nuestra señora de la noche (2006), and Dionne Brand's In Another Place, Not Here (1996). Romance, perhaps more than any other literary form, exerts an allegorical force that exceeds the story of individual characters. The symbolic weight of romance imagines the possibilities of a social order--a social order dependent on the sexual behavior of its citizens. By rewriting the romance, Caribbean women reconsider the sexual politics that have linked women with metaphorical constructions of the nation while at the same time detailing the extent to which transnational forces, including colonization, impact the representation of love and desire in literary texts. Although ultimately these novels refuse the generic requirements of the traditional resolution for romance (the so-called happy ending), they nonetheless gesture towards a reordering of community and a revised notion of kinship that recognizes the weight of both gendered and sexual identities in the Caribbean.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipCommittee in charge: Karen McPherson, Chairperson, Romance Languages; David Vazquez, Member, English; Tania Triana, Member, Romance Languages; Judith Raiskin, Outside Member, Womens and Gender Studiesen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/10232
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregonen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseriesUniversity of Oregon theses, Comparative Literature Program, Ph. D., 2009;
dc.subjectRomanceen_US
dc.subjectTransnationalen_US
dc.subjectCaribbean novels by womenen_US
dc.subjectCaribbean nationalismsen_US
dc.subjectWomenen_US
dc.subjectRhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Seaen_US
dc.subjectCondé, Maryse. Migration des coeursen_US
dc.subjectSantos-Febres, Mayra, 1966- Nuestra Senora de la Nocheen_US
dc.subjectBrand, Dionne, 1953- In another place, not hereen_US
dc.subjectDominicaen_US
dc.subjectGuadeloupeen_US
dc.subjectPuerto Ricoen_US
dc.subjectTrinidaden_US
dc.subjectComparative literatureen_US
dc.subjectCaribbean literatureen_US
dc.subjectWomen's studiesen_US
dc.subjectWide Sargasso Sea
dc.subjectMigration des coeurs
dc.subjectNuestra Senora de la Noche
dc.subjectIn another place, not here
dc.subjectCaribbean fiction -- Women authors -- History and criticism
dc.titleTransnational romance: The politics of desire in Caribbean novels by womenen_US
dc.title.alternativePolitics of desire in Caribbean novels by womenen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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