Caribbean Transnational Experience (Hardcover)

This volume examines today's vibrant and creative trans-Atlantic Caribbean community. It advances three central arguments, first, the concepts of diaspora and of Caribbean diaspora are problematic. Second, the African diaspora and its variant Caribbean diaspora are integral parts of the wider Atlantic world making it disingenuous to speak of the West and the rest where Caribbeans in the Atlantic are concerned. Third, Goulbourne insists that meaningful discussions about these aspects of the modern world must be empirically validated while being theoretically informed. Unlike much cultural and literary studies, this text makes a plea for verifiable evidence to inform academic and popular discussions about the exciting experiences of Caribbeans across the Atlantic. Chapters explore questions of definition and theory, the common Atlantic heritage and fate, social and economic contexts of Caribbean transnationality, Africa, the USA and the Caribbean in popular discourses in Britain, transnationality of families and the propensity of Caribbean-born and their offspring to return to the Caribbean from the mother country.