Skip to content

Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze Paperback - 2009

by Maria Cristina Fumagalli


From the publisher

Taking up the challenge of redefining modernity from a Caribbean perspective instead of assuming that the North Atlantic view of modernity is universal, Maria Cristina Fumagalli shows how the Caribbean's contributions to the modern world not only provide a more accurate account of the past but also have the potential to change the way in which we imagine the future. Fumagalli uses the myth of Medusa's gaze turning people into stone to describe the way North Atlantic modernity freezes its "others" into a state of perpetual backwardness that produces an ethnocentric narrative based on homogenization, vilification, and disempowerment that actively ignores what fails to conform to the story it wants to tell about itself. In analyzing narratives of modernity that originate in the Caribbean, the author explores the region's refusal to succumb to Medusa's spell and highlights its strategies to outstare the Gorgon.

Reflecting a diversity of texts, genres, and media, the chapters focus on sixteenth-century engravings and paintings from the Netherlands and Italy, a scientific romance produced at the turn of the twentieth century by the king of the Caribbean island Redonda, contemporary collections of poetry from the anglophone Caribbean, a historical novel by the Guadeloupean writer Maryse Cond, a Latin epic, a Homeric hymn, ancient Egyptian rites, fairy tales, romances from England and Jamaica, a long narrative poem by the Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott, and paintings by artists from Europe and the Americas spanning the seventeenth century to the present. Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity offers an original and creative contribution to what it means to be modern.

Details

  • Title Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze
  • Author Maria Cristina Fumagalli
  • Binding Paperback
  • Pages 216
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Virginia Press
  • Date 2009
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780813928586 / 0813928583
  • Weight 0.65 lbs (0.29 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 in (22.61 x 15.24 x 1.27 cm)
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: Latin America
  • Library of Congress subjects Modernism (Literature) - Caribbean Area, Caribbean literature (English) - History and
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2009016455
  • Dewey Decimal Code 810.9

Media reviews

Citations

  • Reference and Research Bk News, 02/01/2010, Page 280

About the author

Maria Cristina Fumagalli is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex in England.

Back to Top

More Copies for Sale

Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze (New World Studies)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze (New World Studies)

by Fumagalli, Maria Cristina

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
Like New
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780813928586 / 0813928583
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Hyattsville, Maryland, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£10.50
£3.22 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
University of Virginia Press, 2009-11-02. paperback. Like New. 6x1x9. Unmarked trade paperback
Item Price
£10.50
£3.22 shipping to USA
Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze (New World Studies)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze (New World Studies)

by Maria Cristina Fumagalli

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
Used: Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780813928586 / 0813928583
Quantity Available
1
Seller
HOUSTON, Texas, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£10.91
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
University of Virginia Press, 2009-10-26. Paperback. Used: Good.
Item Price
£10.91
FREE shipping to USA
Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze (New World Studies)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze (New World Studies)

by Fumagalli, Maria Cristina

  • New
  • Paperback
Condition
New
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780813928586 / 0813928583
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Boonsboro, Maryland, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£11.86
£4.03 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
University of Virginia Press, 2009-11-02. Paperback. New. Brand new. Clean, unmarked pages. Fine binding and cover. Softcover.
Item Price
£11.86
£4.03 shipping to USA
Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze (New World Studies)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze (New World Studies)

by Maria Cristina Fumagalli

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
Used:Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780813928586 / 0813928583
Quantity Available
1
Seller
HOUSTON, Texas, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£20.94
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
University of Virginia Press, 2009-10-26. Paperback. Used:Good.
Item Price
£20.94
FREE shipping to USA