Product Description

The Caribbean is the source of one of the richest, most accessible, and yet technically adventurous traditions of contemporary world literature. This collection of Caribbean short stories is pan-Caribbean, including stories from the four main languages of the region: English, Spanish, French, and Dutch. Stories by major figures in the English language tradition such as V. S. Naipaul, Sam Sevlon, and Jean Rhys are set alongside their Spanish- and French-speaking contemporaries like Alejo Carpentier, Jan Bosh, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Their work, in all its diversity of style, theme, and linguistic energy, provides a context for the work of an exciting new generation of Caribbean writers like Edwidge Danticat, Robert Antoni, Astrid Roemer, and Jamaica Kincaid. A celebration of regional creativity, the collection contains sufficient surprises to keep even the most avid student of West Indian writing turning the pages, while reminding readers that the Caribbean is a multilingual, multicultural space.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #176068 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

From the Publisher
Praise for the Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories
‘This is the Caribbean collection I have been waiting for. I simply don’t know any other way of holding so much of the region’s literary greatness in one hand. … the best anthology of Caribbean stories of all time, and if a better one appears some time in the future, it will be edited by Stewart Brown and John Wickham.’

Benjamin Zephaniah

‘This breathtakingly rich and diverse collection brings together language, cultures and island experiences from right across the Caribbean … excitingly juxtaposes migrant and home-based perspectives, the local and the global, the traditional and the experimental, as well as new and also well-known writers.’

Elleke Boehmer, University of Leeds

‘This generous and well informed selection is enriched by the inclusion of … fine pieces from major writers of the Spanish, French and Dutch Caribbean. The whole is a vibrant representation of one of the contemporary world’s most exciting cultural crossroads.’

Eddie Baugh,

University of the West Indies, Jamaica

‘[W]hat we have here is a stunning collection of writers representing almost every region that is touched by the Caribbean Sea, and what we experience as we read this collection is the truth that we have always suspected but never ventured to say; that some of the best writing to have appeared in this century has come from this archipelago of complex histories and diverse traditions.’

Kwame Dawes, University of South Carolina at Sumter

‘Wry humour, mysticism, social comment and racy invective interweave to create a memorable mosaic of images of the wider Caribbean in this original and engrossingly diverse collection of stories. … A hugely entertaining and informative collection, to visit and revisit.’

Dennis Walder, The Open University

‘The title gives no hint of the startling content and unique features of The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories. … a wonderfully varied but integrated flow of writing from, or about, the Caribbean, over almost a hundred years. … Brown’s brilliant, long introduction defends and explains his and Wickham’s selection and arrangement—and far, far more. … This jointly-edited anthology is skilfully prepared and seems appropriately pitched for general reader and student alike.’

Anne Walmsley, Caribbean arts researcher and writer, London

‘An important feature is its inclusion of authors from the French, Spanish and Dutch-speaking Caribbean, including Alejo Carpentier and René Depestre. The collection is framed by a stimulating introduction by Stewart Brown. Generous in its expanse, and imaginative in its selection, the book can serve as both introduction and consolidation to this vivid and varied literature.’

Louis James, University of Kent

About the Author
Stewart Brown is a poet and critic who teaches African and Caribbean literature at the Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham. He has previously taught in Jamaica, Nigeria. He has edited several anthologies of Caribbean writing, and published many books and essays on aspects of West Indian culture.