This comprehensive, annotated bibliography of works by and about Caribbean women novelists from 1950 to the present covers novelists from all Caribbean islands and Surinam writing in English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and their dialects. Entries on some 150 individual writers are organized alphabetically and comprise a biographical sketch, data on novels with plot synopses, a listing of other known publications in all genres, as well as annotated criticism and reviews. Included are translations, interviews, recorded materials, and broadcast literature. Sources range from publications of major presses and journals in various countries and languages to dissertations and items from local newspapers and small presses. Preceding the author entries is a Bibliography of General Works covering criticism; bibliographies, both regional and for individual countries; and bio-bibliographical reference books. Alternative means of access are provided by a List of Authors by Country and indexes of novels, critics, and themes and key words. A guide to resources on literature of the Netherlands Antilles is included as an appendix. Caribbean literature--and Caribbean women writers in particular--is one of the fastest growing fields of literary study. Additionally, the Caribbean presents an ideal laboratory for other areas of intense research: comparative literatures and post-colonial studies. This bibliography serves these interests, placing special emphasis on common themes and techniques that transcend national boundaries and linguistic differences.

For review see: Sue N. Greene, in Nieuwe West-Indische Gids / New West Indian Guide, vol. 65, no. 1 & 2 (1991); p. 94-96; Jennifer Jackson, in The Caribbean Writer, vol. 5 (1991); p. 125-126; Stefanie Gehrke, in Caribbean writers = Les auteurs Caribéens, ed. by Marlies Glaser & Marion Pausch (1994); p. 226.

This diverse and challenging collection of critical appraisals of Caribbean women fiction writers meets the urgent need for detailed critical analysis in this rapidly expanding field of interest. It includes an extensive bibliography both of relevant criticism and of Caribbean women writers and their fiction list by area.

NULL

15 essays and two interviews that examine the work of West Indian writers living in Canada. The authors of these essays and interviews dissect issues of history, gender, power, identity and levels of discourse in moving scholars, researchers and students into arenas of study and critique of the West Indian Woman writer residing in Canada.

An anthology by women writers from the Caribbean. Haiti's Edwidge Danticat contributes Night Women, a story about prostitutes, and Jamaica's Carmen Tipling contributes Lunchtime Revolution, a play on a coup d'etat by amateurs.

Caribbean Women Writers and Globalization offers a fresh reading of contemporary literature by Caribbean women in the context of global and local economic forces, providing a valuable corrective to much Caribbean feminist literary criticism. Departing from the trend towards thematic diasporic studies, Helen Scott considers each text in light of its national historical and cultural origins while also acknowledging regional and international patterns. Though the work of Caribbean women writers is apparently less political than the male-dominated literature of national liberation, Scott argues that these women nonetheless express the sociopolitical realities of the postindependent Caribbean, providing insight into the dynamics of imperialism that survive the demise of formal colonialism. In addition, she identifies the specific aesthetic qualities that reach beyond the confines of geography and history in the work of such writers as Oonya Kempadoo, Jamaica Kincaid, Edwidge Danticat, Pauline Melville, and Janice Shinebourne. Throughout, Scott's persuasive and accessible study sustains the dialectical principle that art is inseparable from social forces and yet always strains against the limits they impose. Her book will be an indispensable resource for literature and women's studies scholars, as well as for those interested in postcolonial, cultural, and globalization studies.