Charleston Thomas
Postgraduate Student
UWI, St Augustine
Trinidad

Establishing a compromise between Essentialism and Creoleness/Creolization: An attempt to Locate Agency

Wilson Harris and Stuart Hall, as pioneers in theorizing Caribbean culture, have continuously sought to revisit notions of Caribbean cultural identity. They have challenged conventional conceptions and understandings of Caribbeanness, underlining some of the limitations which keep these former (and relatively current) notions in a state of historical stasis. They have advanced several provocative ideas which aim at exercising imagination and employing re-interpretative skills in an attempt to re-configure the local history of the region. However, their conceptions are still faced with strong opposition from essentialist positions that continue to struggle to hold on to a sense of authenticity.

This paper will unveil the ideas put forward by both writers, highlighting the rationale each writer proposes in advancing his model(s) as a necessary alternative for any understanding of Caribbeanness. However, the paper will also explore the instability of agency in their frames and as such, it will attempt at a compromise between an essentialist and a creolized agent, by highlighting the (self)productive/creolizing nature of the subject/agent. This position will draw examples from the texts Before Night Falls, by Reinaldo Arenas, and My Brother, by Jamaica Kincaid.