Caribbean-Scottish Relations : Colonial and Contemporary Inscriptions in History, Language

In this book, Joan Anim Addo, Giovanna Covi, Velma Pollard, and Carla Sassi present the results of collaborative research on colonial and postcolonial relationships between the Caribbean and Scotland, promoted by the University of Trento, Italy, and coordinated by Giovanna Covi.

The four essays focus on the historical, cultural and literary representations of various aspects of this complicated interconnection: Joan Anim Addo’s on family history, Giovanna Covi’s on identities in African-Caribbean literature, Velma Pollard’s on Jamaican history and language, and Carla Sassi on Scottish literature. They discuss pivotal figures such as Mary Seacole, Charles and Hugh Mulzac, and texts by Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, James Robertson, by the anonymous Author of Marly, and by Una Marson, Claude McKay, Olive Senior, Jamaica Kincaid, and M. NourbeSe Philip among others; they give voice to Juliana Mulzac through (auto)biography and to numerous other people through interviews and acts of re-memorying.

This book inaugurates the project to remap colonial history by accounting for the often paradoxical complexity of relations determined by imperial power; not only does it consider that which separates Scotland from the Caribbean, that which sets “Blackness” apart from “Scottishness”, but it also accepts an investigation of that which brings these two geopolitical areas and ethnic groups together. The inquiry results in a multi-vocal discourse that deconstructs national narratives, unveils colonial inscriptions, and releases the creolised images and words that demand full citizenship in the representation of the Circum-Atlantic.