Caribbean-British Travel Writing, 1958-2018 Sofia Aatkar a Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of Nottin
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Caribbean-British Travel Writing, 1958-2018 Sofia Aatkar A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2019 This work is the intellectual property of the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the owner of the Intellectual Property Rights. 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I wish to thank my supervisory team, Professor Tim Youngs, Dr Jenni Ramone, and Dr Nicole Thiara, who, with patience and generosity of time and thought, have guided me throughout the last three years. Thanks also to Dr Anna Ball, who encouraged me to pursue postgraduate study after completing my undergraduate course, and to Professor Phil Leonard, Dr Sharon Ouditt, Dr Amy Rushton, and Dr Rebecca Butler all of whom offered support and advice throughout the PhD application and beyond. The warm and friendly atmosphere within Nottingham Trent’s department of English, Communications, and Philosophy helped me find and develop my voice (on both an academic and a personal level). The English Literature lecturers at this institution represent one of the main reasons I wanted to continue with academia after I completed my undergraduate course. Additionally, the Inter-Library Loans team at Nottingham Trent are fantastic and they aided my research greatly. Thanks also to Dr Jeremy Poynting and Hannah Bannister at Peepal Tree Press for all the resources on Edgar Mittelholzer. On a more personal note, I want to thank my parents, grandparents, and brothers for encouraging me to pursue something I am passionate about. I have made wonderful friends in Nottingham, including Veronika Schuchter, Hannah Wilson, Amy Longstaff, Connor Murphy, Kelsi Delaney, Sabrina Moro, the members of ‘Tum’s Organisation Group’, Alison Fox, Riane Amraoui, and Charlie Flint – a big thanks to all of you for making my time in Nottingham so enjoyable. Finally, thank you to Nathan Tomlinson for making me laugh, even on the difficult writing days. My research has been generously funded by Midlands4Cities and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, to whom I am grateful. Part of Chapter Three formed the basis of my essay, ‘Postcolonial Flânerie in Caryl Phillips’s The Atlantic Sound and Ferdinand Dennis’s Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain’, which was published by Journal of Postcolonial Writing (2019), DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2019.1678061. 3 Contents Page Abstract ..................................................................................................................................6 Caribbean-British Travel Writing, 1958-2018: An Introduction ...........................................8 The Caribbean and Travel ............................................................................................................14 The Caribbean-British Relationship .............................................................................................18 Colonisation ............................................................................................................................................ 18 ‘Colonisation in Reverse’ ....................................................................................................................... 20 Travel Writing and Colonialism ...................................................................................................22 Postcolonial Travel Writing ..........................................................................................................28 Origins and Overview ............................................................................................................................. 29 Critical Trends ........................................................................................................................................ 32 Caribbean Travel Writing ....................................................................................................................... 37 Structure .......................................................................................................................................39 Chapter One The Travellee Polemic and Edgar Mittelholzer’s With a Carib Eye ..............44 Edgar Mittelholzer ........................................................................................................................45 Travellee Polemic .........................................................................................................................49 Travellee Polemics and Authority ................................................................................................58 The Success of Travellee Polemics ..............................................................................................68 Chapter Two Foreign Bodies: Apparitions and Tourists in Amryl Johnson’s Sequins for a Ragged Hem .........................................................................................................................77 Belonging .....................................................................................................................................84 Cultural Performativity ........................................................................................................................... 87 4 The Ghosts ....................................................................................................................................99 Ghosts in Travel Writing ...................................................................................................................... 100 Ghosts and Caribbean Literature .......................................................................................................... 103 Chapter Three Flânerie and Counter-mapping in Ferdinand Dennis’s Behind the Frontlines and Caryl Phillips’s The Atlantic Sound ............................................................................110 The Flâneur and the Postcolonial Flâneur ..................................................................................115 The Postcolonial Flâneur in White Terrain ........................................................................................... 122 The Postcolonial Flâneur in Black Colony Areas ................................................................................. 125 Counter-mapping ........................................................................................................................130 Mapping and Literature ........................................................................................................................ 131 Postcolonial Flânerie and Counter-mapping ......................................................................................... 136 Chapter Four Flight of Fancy: Armchair Encounters and Uncanny Returns in Caribbean- British Travel Writing ........................................................................................................145 Armchair Travel .........................................................................................................................151 Uncanny Returns ........................................................................................................................173 Chapter Five ‘Lingering colonial tensions’? Blogging, Race, and Caribbean Travel .......182 Travel Blogs ...............................................................................................................................186 Blogging, Travel, and Race .................................................................................................................. 188 Imperial and Brochure Discourse in Travel Blogs .....................................................................195 Uncommon Caribbean .......................................................................................................................... 198 Travel and Treatz .................................................................................................................................. 206 One Girl: One World ............................................................................................................................ 209 Conclusion Caribbean-British Travel Writing, 1958-2018 and Beyond ...........................215 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................226 Primary Sources ..........................................................................................................................226 Secondary Sources ......................................................................................................................234 5 Abstract This thesis examines anglophone Caribbean-British travel writing published between 1958 and 2018. The texts it discusses reflect on and shape the Caribbean-British relationship as their authors represent Britain from a Caribbean perspective, articulate a Caribbean-British identity, and depict Britain’s presence in the Caribbean. Focussing predominantly on travel narratives which are out of print or have received scant scholarly attention, the thesis combines approaches from postcolonial and travel writing studies to analyse how Caribbean-British travel