Wiebke Beushausen Livres

The coming-of-age novel continues to be an important genre for depicting the interrelation of body, subject, and society. Women writers of the Caribbean diaspora return to this genre to describe lived experience and both social inclusion and exclusion, that either support or inhibit personal development within seemingly predetermined power structures. This study investigates and defines the Caribbean-diasporic coming-of-age novels which aim to decolonize the genre of the Bildungsroman. It offers a comparative perspective on the novels written by Angie Cruz, Edwidge Danticat, Ramabai Espinet, and Makeda Silvera, who write about adolescent, maternal, homoerotic, unruly, violated, and rebellious bodies. Close reading focuses on the fictional representations and discourses of hegemonic and subversive body politics under postcolonial and migrant conditions. The book shows how feminist, political writing makes marginalized bodies, identities, and histories visible.

»Caribbean Food Cultures« approaches the matter of food from the perspectives of anthropology, sociology, cultural and literary studies. Its strong interdisciplinary focus provides new insights into symbolic and material food practices beyond eating, drinking, cooking, or etiquette. The contributors discuss culinary aesthetics and neo/colonial gazes on the Caribbean in literary documents, audiovisual media, and popular images. They investigate the negotiation of communities and identities through the preparation, consumption, and commodification of »authentic« food. Furthermore, the authors emphasize the influence of underlying socioeconomic power relations for the reinvention of Caribbean and Western identities in the wake of migration and transnationalism. The anthology features contributions by renowned scholars such as Rita De Maeseneer and Fabio Parasecoli who read Hispano-Caribbean literatures and popular culture through the lens of food studies.