Humor in the Caribbean Literary Canon

Sam Vásquez is an assistant professor of English at Dartmouth College.

"Recommended." - Choice "Humor remains classed, gendered, and very serious business in Caribbean literary spheres, perhaps because of the acute self-consciousness of the region's middle class about being perceived as respectable and/or modern. Vasquez' study crosses canonical and generic borders in unexpected ways - a novel by Hurston, the poetry of Bennett and McKay, the plays of Walcott and Cesaire, in the same conversation. This offers us unexpected and refreshing juxtapositions, and prompts new questions and perspectives." - Faith Smith, Brandeis University "An extraordinarily insightful book on the delightful topic of Caribbean literary humor. Vasquez makes us think hard about the transformative power of laughter." - Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, University of Michigan, author of Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora

• Introduction: Take Bad Something Make Laugh: The Emergence of Humor in the Caribbean Literary Tradition Stiff Words Frighten Poor Folk: Humor, Orality, and Gender in Zora Neale Hurston's Moses, Man of the Mountain Slackness and a Mento Aesthetic: Louise Bennett's Trickster Poetics and Jamaican Women's Explorations of Sexuality The Laughing Corpse: Humorous Performances of Spirituality, Sexuality, and Identity in Aimé Césaire's A Tempest Man Friday Speaks: Calypso Humor and the Reworking of Hierarchy in Derek Walcott's Pantomime Conclusion: Contemporary Literary Crossing and Humor in the Caribbean