SOURCE: Phaf, Ineke. “Caribbean Imagination and Nation Building in Antillean and Surinamese Literature,” translated by G. J. van Excel, with assistance from Maureen Berkel. Callaloo 11, no. 1 (winter 1988): 148-71.

In the following essay, Phaf explores the interplay between the Caribbean imagination and the literature of the countries comprising the Caribbean basin, focusing particularly on the Antilles and Surinam.

In Search of Caribbean Characteristics

This essay examines an important function of the Caribbean imagination in that part of the region where, in the seventeenth century, colonies were established and administered “in the name of Oranje.” Because of the lack of translations and critical studies that might draw the attention of an international audience to its literature, this imagination is hardly known beyond the Dutch-speaking corners of the world. Thus this literature resembles a blind spot in the Caribbean literary landscape, giving a totally false impression of the real situation. Authors...