The Political Ecology of Storms in Caribbean Literature
The Political Ecology of Storms in Caribbean Literature
In this chapter, Sharae Deckard explores the metaphorics and aesthetics of tropical storms and ocean-borne “disasters” in Caribbean fictions. The essay considers how Caribbean writers use storm-events to construct liminal narrative spaces which overturn social hierarchies and behaviours; to figure the operations and intrusions of ‘disaster capitalism’; and, finally, to generate formal disruptions that revitalize the possibility of collective action or consciousness in the face of the stasis or amnesia produced by colonialism and/or neo-colonialism in the service of neoliberal capital. Surveying texts from the Anglophone, Francophone and Hispanophone Caribbean, the chapter examines the ways in which the radical disruptive potential of tropical storms is embedded in literary form. In so doing, it demonstrates how storm aesthetics can correspond to political ecologies and materialize the specific socio-ecological conditions from which they emerge.
Keywords: world-ecology, tropical storms, hurricanes, realism, irrealism, nationalism, colonialism, imperialism, neoliberalism, resistance
Liverpool Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
