Drawing on letters; illustrations; engravings; and neglected manuscripts; Christopher Iannini connects two dramatic transformations in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world--the emergence and growth of the Caribbean plantation system and the rise of natural science. Iannini argues that these transformations were not only deeply interconnected; but that together they established conditions fundamental to the development of a distinctive literary culture in the early Americas. In fact; eighteenth-century natural history as a literary genre largely took its shape from its practice in the Caribbean; an oft-studied region that was a prime source of wealth for all of Europe and the Americas. The formal evolution of colonial prose narrative; Ianinni argues; was contingent upon the emergence of natural history writing; which itself emerged necessarily from within the context of Atlantic slavery and the production of tropical commodities. As he reestablishes the history of cultural exchange between the Caribbean and North America; Ianinni recovers the importance of the West Indies in the formation of American literary and intellectual culture as well as its place in assessing the moral implications of colonial slavery.
#5202079 in Books The University of North Carolina Press 2005-09-05Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.25 x 6.25 x 1.00l; #File Name: 0807829579312 pages
Review
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Defining Moment Defined?By PC from Silicon ValleyIf historical analysis absolutely has to be distorted by the whims of political correctness; it should at least be twisted into something recognizable to readers. Here; however; the text is driven by two problematic and rather sugary impulses—the desire to view Southern history as “relevant†in some innovative way and the perceived need to depict African-American leaders of the Reconstruction period as being so “special†as to inspire right thinking in later generations. The two impulses don’t really work all that well together in forming a convincing whole. Clark has done a solid job of assembling the available information on how urban African-Americans commemorated Emancipation Day and other civic celebrations of the 19th century. But this is about as far as her study takes her. Much of the rest; sad to say; is puffery. There is something patronizing in the assumption that today’s readers require an uplifting tale to get them to commit to a better future. At one point; Clack asserts that “all Americans†should offer thanks to conservative Black leaders for their work in trying to build a nation free of racism. But those men (and a few women—who get an ornate and unconvincing “gendered†treatment at several points) were abject failures in constructing that happier future. This was obvious during their own lifetimes and their role does not really get any more significant upon examination. It isn’t clear that Booker T. Washington felt all that inspired by their example. Martin Luther King would think the early Black leaders ineffective at best; perhaps a little sad. And Malcolm would laugh.
