Colonial-Era Caribbean Theatre

Issues in Research, Writing and Methodology

Buch | Softcover

280 Seiten

2025
Liverpool University Press (Verlag)
978-1-83624-553-7 (ISBN)

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Cutting across academic boundaries, this volume brings together scholars from different disciplines who have explored together the richness and complexity of colonial-era Caribbean theatre. The volume offers a series of original essays that showcase individual expertise in light of broader group discussions. Asking how we can research effectively and write responsibly about colonial-era Caribbean theatre today, our primary concern is methodology. Key questions are examined via new research into individual case studies on topics ranging from Cuban blackface, commedia dell’arte in Suriname and Jamaican oratorio to travelling performers and the influence of the military and of enslaved people on theatre in Saint-Domingue. Specifically, we ask what particular methodological challenges we as scholars of colonial-era Caribbean theatre face and what methodological solutions we can find to meet those challenges. Areas addressed include our linguistic limitations in the face of Caribbean multilingualism; issues raised by national, geographical or imperial approaches to the field; the vexed relationship between metropole and colony; and, crucially, gaps in the archive. We also ask what implications our findings have for theatre performance today – a question that has led to the creation of a new work set in a colonial theatre and outlined in the volume’s concluding chapter.

Julia Prest is Professor of French and Caribbean Studies at the University of St Andrews.

List of Figures

List of
Contributors

Acknowledgements

Introduction, Julia Prest

Part I: The Pan-Caribbean

Chapter
One. Studying the Colonial Caribbean: Combining Geographical and Imperial Approaches

Dexnell Peters

Chapter Two. Mobility as a Lens for
Reading the History of Opera in the Colonial Caribbean
Charlotte Bentley

Chapter
Three. Multilingual Approaches to Colonial-Era
Caribbean Theatre Research: Challenges and Interventions
Susan Thomas

Part II: Approaches

Chapter
Four. Connecting
Metropole and Colony? Harlequin Travels to Suriname

Sarah J. Adams

Chapter
Five. Problems
of Framing: National or Colonial Approaches to Blackface Performance?

Jill Lane

Chapter
Six. Contextualizing Late Eighteenth-Century Jamaican Oratorio: Obstacles
and Opportunities
Wayne
Weaver

Part III: Sources and Gaps

Chapter
Seven. Silences in the Archives: The Mysterious One-Night Stand of John
Fawcett’s Obi; or, Three-Finger’d Jack in Kingston, Jamaica (1862)

Jenna M. Gibbs

Chapter
Eight. Using Military Documents to Study Colonial-Era Theatre and
Performance in Saint-Domingue

Logan J. Connors

Chapter Nine. Uncovering
Connections between Theatre and Slavery: Runaway Advertisements in Colonial
Saint-Domingue and Beyond

Julia Prest

Chapter
Ten. Knowledge Exchange Theatre and the Colonial Caribbean: Creating
Placeholder
Catherine Bisset, Flavia d’Avila and Jaïrus Obayomi

Erscheinungsdatum	17.09.2025
Verlagsort	Liverpool
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
ISBN-10	1-83624-553-X / 183624553X
ISBN-13	978-1-83624-553-7 / 9781836245537
Zustand	Neuware