Locating Guyane
Published on 1. September 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-1-80085-581-6 (ISBN)
Description
Overseas department of France in Amazonia and 'ultraperipheral region' of the EU, Guyane (French Guiana) is at the juncture of Europe, the Caribbean and South America. This collection of essays explores historical and conceptual locations of Guyane, as a relational space characterised by dynamics of interaction and conflict between the local, the national and the global. Does Guyane have, or has it had, its own place in the world, or is it a borderland which can only make sense in relation to elsewhere: to France and its colonial history, for example, or to African and other diasporas, or as a 'margin' of Europe?
This edited collection is the first volume to study Guyane from multiple perspectives. It subjects the enduring cliches and negative stereotypes regarding Guyane to critical examination, exploring how discourse on this DOM is, and has been, formed and how it may evolve. Chapters discuss geographical, literary and cultural 'locations' of Guyane, past and present, challenging its relegation to the 'periphery', whilst also historicizing the production of its marginal status. Finally, the collection aims to outline possible future challenges to the conceptual location of Guyane and possible directions for continued research.
This edited collection is the first volume to study Guyane from multiple perspectives. It subjects the enduring cliches and negative stereotypes regarding Guyane to critical examination, exploring how discourse on this DOM is, and has been, formed and how it may evolve. Chapters discuss geographical, literary and cultural 'locations' of Guyane, past and present, challenging its relegation to the 'periphery', whilst also historicizing the production of its marginal status. Finally, the collection aims to outline possible future challenges to the conceptual location of Guyane and possible directions for continued research.
Reviews / Votes
'The book is a fascinating challenge to historiographies of Guyane as it peels off the layers of its changing relationships with France and other places in the world, detangles its history of contact, reveals the actors involved in its many transitions from place of forced exile to high-tech center, highlights the role its penal past has played in making it "periphery", and explains what being Guyanais today entails in a globalized world of flows where local Kreyol traditions and Maroon narratives get reinvented and shaped in the context of cultural commercialism and global art markets.'Helene B. Ducros, Europe Now Journal 'This
valuable interdisciplinary volume offers wide-ranging essays that examine
stereotypes about France's Amazonian outpost that go beyond simple images of
the country as a 'green hell.'
Robert Aldrich, French History 'Overall, with Locating
Guyana Wood and MacLeod have achieved a milestone in the study of French
Guyana.'
Fabio Santos, PERIPHERIE 'English-language works on Guyane are comparatively few and far between, and Locating Guyane rectifies a lacuna in the wider scholarship by exploring what makes it distinct from its fellow "old colonies" of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Reunion. Given the volume's interdisciplinarity and the essays' breadth, the short volume speaks to a wide range of academic disciplines, and consequently it serves as an excellent scholarly primer on Guyane, its colonial legacy, and its place in an increasingly global, modern world.'
Christopher M. Church, H-France Review
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Liverpool
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
11 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-80085-581-6 (9781800855816)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Dr Catriona MacLeod is Lecturer in French Studies at the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP). Dr Sarah Wood is Visiting Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Connecticut.
Content
Introduction
Richard Price, 'The Oldest Daughter of Overseas France'
Kari Evanson, 'Grand Reporters in Guyane: Bringing the Exotic Back Home'
Kathleen Gyssels, 'Kor and Karnival, the carnal road of Leon-Gontran Damas: "Evidence of Things not Seen"'
Silvia Espelt Bombin, 'Frontier Politics: French, Portuguese and Amerindian Alliances between the Amazon and Cayenne, 1680-1697'
Jonna Yarrington, 'Producing the periphery'
Edenz Maurice, 'A school in Boniville Political skills and "Primitives' in French Guiana (1930-1969)'
Sarah Wood, 'Reclaiming Felix Eboue: Departmentalisation and politics of commemoration in Guyane, 1944-2012'
Antonia Cristinoi and Francois Nemo, 'Palikur, a language between two worlds'
Sally Price, 'Maroon Art in Guyane: New Forms, New Discourses'
Catriona MacLeod: 'Performing and Parading Gender in Guyane's Carnival'
Bill Marshall, 'Equality and Difference: Queering Guyane?'
Conclusion: remaking Guyane?
Richard Price, 'The Oldest Daughter of Overseas France'
Kari Evanson, 'Grand Reporters in Guyane: Bringing the Exotic Back Home'
Kathleen Gyssels, 'Kor and Karnival, the carnal road of Leon-Gontran Damas: "Evidence of Things not Seen"'
Silvia Espelt Bombin, 'Frontier Politics: French, Portuguese and Amerindian Alliances between the Amazon and Cayenne, 1680-1697'
Jonna Yarrington, 'Producing the periphery'
Edenz Maurice, 'A school in Boniville Political skills and "Primitives' in French Guiana (1930-1969)'
Sarah Wood, 'Reclaiming Felix Eboue: Departmentalisation and politics of commemoration in Guyane, 1944-2012'
Antonia Cristinoi and Francois Nemo, 'Palikur, a language between two worlds'
Sally Price, 'Maroon Art in Guyane: New Forms, New Discourses'
Catriona MacLeod: 'Performing and Parading Gender in Guyane's Carnival'
Bill Marshall, 'Equality and Difference: Queering Guyane?'
Conclusion: remaking Guyane?