This groundbreaking anthology represents the critical inquiry of literary scholars into the trope of loss and mourning in the work of women writers from the Caribbean archipelago. There is a great deal of recent scholarly interest in the relationship of loss and mourning yet there are no books specifically devoted to an examination of this trope in the works of Caribbean women writers. To fill this gap, this collection of original essays examines subjects that encompass the brutality of slavery, oppressive dictatorships, AIDS, and the catastrophe of the Mount Pele volcano that appear in the writings of women from the English, Spanish and French speaking Caribbean. It is an important addition to the contemporary discourse on loss and mourning. The project is an exciting and vital one because it brings together a multiplicity of perspectives and critical approaches to examine the works of writers such as Jean Rhys, Jamaica Kincaid, Julia Alvarez and Maryse Conde. What emerges is a complex portrait of loss, mourning and remembrance that both enriches and challenges customary discourses of loss, mourning and melancholia.
About the Author: Joyce C. Harte obtained her a B.A. cum laude in English from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English Education from New York University. She is Professor in the English Department of the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York where she teaches courses in Children's Literature, Postcolonial Literature, as well as a range of introductory literature and composition courses. In 2001, she received a PSC/CUNY Faculty Research Award for And Dances with the Daffodils: The English Education of an African-Caribbean Teacher, and in 2003-2004 held the Andrew M. Mellon Faculty Fellowship for Divided Loyalties at the Center of the Humanities of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. In 2004 she was also a participant in the Salzburg International Program, Community Colleges as Sites of Global Citizenship. From 2006-2007 Dr. Harte was President of the Women's Caucus of the North East Modern Language Association. In the fall of 2007, she will begin serving as Chair of the English Department of the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York. Dr. Harte's research interests are in Postcolonial Literature and Caribbean Studies. She is interested in the explication of home and homeland in the writings of Caribbean women writers. Her publications include Teaching and Learning Across Cultures: The Literature Classroom as a Site for Cultural Transactions in Rethinking American Literature (National Council of Teachers of English, 1997), and Caribbean Literature as Catalyst in the Composition Classroom (with June Bobb and Keith Gilyard) in Voices in English Classrooms (NCTE 1996).