Lise Winer - Böcker

The first comprehensive, historical, scholarly dictionary of the English and English Creole languages of Trinidad & Tobago.

Of all the islands in the Caribbean, Trinidad has experienced the most varied ethnocultural and linguistic history. Its relatively brief period of plantation slavery and extent of racial mixing have generated a wide range of literary responses. Previous examinations of Trinidad's literary roots have largely dismissed works written prior to 1920. The first work in the series is Warner Arundell, the Adventures of a Creole, originally published in 1838. This was the first novel set at least partly in Trinidad and possibly the first Caribbean novel in English. This extremely well written novel provides a "good read" as it chronicles the adventures of Warner Arundell, a white Creole of British descent, born in Grenada and brought up in Antigua and Trinidad. After being defrauded by lawyers, he studies law in Venezuela and medicine in England, then goes to seek his fortune. After many adventures, he is reunited with the coloured branch of his family and his Venezuelan love. The originally published novel has been heavily annotated and the contextualized edition of the original text makes it useful to scholars.The book is of particular interest to students and faculty of Caribbean literature, Commonwealth literature, postcolonial literature, world literatures in English, nineteenth-century literature, Caribbean history and African American studies.

The Caribbean Heritage Series is designed to publish historic re-publications of "Trinidad Literary Roots" and comprises four Trinidadian novels published between 1838 and 1907. This second volume in the series presents two novels, Adolphus, a Tale and The Slave Son. Adolphus was first published in 1853 and was probably written by a Trinidadian mulatto, thus making it the first Trinidadian, and possibly the first West Indian, novel written by a mulatto and the first novel written by someone born and reared in Trinidad. A dramatic nineteenth-century tale, originally published in the newspapers of the day, Adolphus, traces the adventures of a mulatto son of a black slave women raped by a white man. Raised by a kind Spanish-Trinidadian padre, Adolphus grows into a handsome, well-educated, noble character. Later falling in love with Antonia Romelia, he manages to rescue her from a villainous kidnaper and they flee to Venezuela where they are free to marry.The Slave Son was originally published in 1854 by Chapman and Hall, and according to the author's foreword, it was inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and was written to support the abolitionist movement in the United States

The Caribbean Heritage series is designed to publish new editions of historically significant works of fiction from our region. The first three volumes in the series comprise four Trinidadian novels published between 1838 and 1907. A substantial introduction and thorough annotations contextualize each of the original texts. The first volume in the series is E.L. Joseph's Warner Arundell: The Adventures of a Creole. The second volume includes two novels: Adolphus, A Tale, and Mrs Wilkins's The Slave Son. The third volume in the series presents Stephen Cobham's novel Rupert Gray, first published in 1907. Like the other novels in the series, this work also contains a strong political impetus, typical of West Indian novels, including support for the rights of all races. Together these four texts establish evidence of a much older and deeper local literary foundation than hitherto realized. This novel was written in Trinidad by a black or mixed-race teacher then law clerk, who also wrote poems and gave public lectures on literary topics.The character of Rupert Gray was apparently based on that of Henry Sylvester Williams, a black lawyer educated in England, who was a major figure in the Pan-African Association. The novel traces the love affair of Rupert Gray, a Negro accountant, and Gwendoline Serle, the daughter of a white businessman in Trinidad. The couple's interracial courtship is marked by parental disapproval, society's scorn and the loyalty of friends. A series of tragic events culminates in a melodramatic courtroom scene.

This fourth volume in the Caribbean Heritage series presents the texts of two short plays, first written in Trinidad in 1832 and 1852–53. The author of Martial Law in Trinidad was E.L. Joseph, an English-born long-time resident of Trinidad, who later published a novel, Warner Arundell: The Adventures of a Creole, and the first history of the island. The author of Past and Present is not known, but may have been G.N. Dessources, a mixed-race Trinidadian who probably wrote Adolphus, a Tale around the same time. (Annotated editions of Warner Arundell and Adolphus, a Tale have been republished as part of the Caribbean Heritage series.) These plays shed considerable light on the social evolution of Trinidad in the crucial decades just before and after the end of slavery in the 1830s. Their publication also contributes to our understanding of the early emergence of theatre, and a local indigenous literary tradition, in Trinidad – and by extension, in the British Caribbean – during this period. This scholarly edition includes a preface by the Trinidadian novelist Lawrence Scott, a biographical note on E.L. Joseph, contextual introductions to each play, a note on language usage and explanatory annotations to the plays.