Caribbean Literature and the Environment (review)

It is always a risky endeavor to apply a set of theories conceived in developed nations to other, less-developed regions. From Marxism to surrealism, and perhaps the generalizing strands of postcolonialism, there is a long history of cultural and ideological mismatches between "first" and "third" worlds. Fortunately, the editors of this volume are well aware of the risk of intellectual imperialism in applying their particular critical perspective—ecocriticism—to the Caribbean without paying due attention to the contradictions and pitfalls of such a project. The lengthy introduction stresses the editors' sensitivity to accusations of "grafting" (27) ecocriticism onto the Caribbean, and also contains a useful critique of the introverted focus of North American ecological criticism. Indeed, such is their concern with stressing their sensitivity that they tend to overstate the importance of "neoimperialism" in perpetuating Caribbean environmental degradation, while giving a pass to the region's independent governments, which (as the editors do realize) have failed to prioritize the environment, and in many cases mistreat the land as if this were their historical right, passed down from Conquistador and colonialist. The introduction points to the risk that unless it is applied with some conviction and courage, as well as sensitivity, this potentially useful critical perspective might wither under the weight of its own good intentions.

Thankfully, the volume's essays and interviews do not lack for critical incisiveness and analytical precision. Antonio Benítez-Rojo sets the standard for the rest of the book with his concise, poetic, personal, and collective sweep through thousands of years of Cuban ecological and political history. His intimate familiarity with the various post-Columbian economic "machines" leads him to say that a "clean, green" development is a future possibility for Cuba, but, he asks with some skepticism, "Is it probable?" (50). Derek Walcott's "Isla Incognita" is written in similarly beautiful, poetic prose, though it deals less with ecology than with internal, or internalized geography, the relationship between landscapes, seasons, climate, and creativity. Another accomplished poet, Cyril Dabydeen, offers an evocative piece, which details how he and his ancestors gradually embedded themselves in the coastal landscape of Guyana, a place where "King Sugar was lord and master" (61) and where the experience of place is shaped irrevocably by the plantation. Dabydeen's essay is complemented by Shona Jackson's lucid and compelling chapter on the El Dorado myth, and its re-incorporation into Guyanese nationalist discourse. Taking Wilson Bigaud's Paradis Terrestre as her poto mitan, and subtly adopting the spinning movements of the trickster spider Anansi into her prose, LeGrace Benson weaves her way around the history of Haitian paradise landscape painting with such skill that one hardly notices the visual absence of the paintings she describes. Jana Evans Braziel's essay takes up directly the editors' challenge to rethink ecocriticism in a Caribbean context, and her engaging analyses of Glissant, Kincaid, and Walcott show effectively the potential of these authors to "move ecocriticism beyond nature writing" (124). While all of the essays are of a high standard, of particular further note are Isabel Hoving's eco-feminist reading of Shanti Mootoo's Cereus Blooms at Night, Natasha Tinsley's original and engaging essay on how colonial discourses of nature in Suriname shaped conceptions of what is sexually "natural" and acceptable, Helen Tiffin's masterful account of how English representations of the tropics have influenced anglophone Caribbean writers, and Heidi Bojsen's equally impressive reading of "rhizomatic narration" in Patrick Chamoiseau's Biblique des derniers gestes. Analytic precision is not therefore compromised by the volume's breadth of focus; appropriately enough, there is a finally a feeling of organic wholeness, of each part being in dialogue with all the others, and of critical, disciplinary, and linguistic boundaries dissolving in a most promising way.