The Post-Columbus Syndrome

Reflecting on the relationship between memory, power, and national identity, this book examines the complex reactions of the people of the Caribbean to the 500th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the New World. Viala analyzes the ways in which Columbus became a reservoir of metaphors to confront anxieties of the present with myths of the past.

Introduction: The Post-Columbus Syndrome: A Comparative Approach to Caribbean Memory in the Longue Durée PART I: POST-COLUMBUS SYSTEMS OF MEMORY: RECYCLING HERITAGE IN THE CARIBBEAN 1. Transculturation as Commemoration: Fernando Ortiz, the Cuban Longue Durée, and the Role of Columbus 2. Edward Kamau Brathwaite and Transnational Anamnesis: Creolising Columbus in the English Caribbean Collective Memory 3. The Snake, the Shore, and Columbus: Edouard Glissant's Anamnesis of the French département d'outre-mer 4. Anamnesis, Chaos, and Columbus: Antonio Benítez Rojo and the Caribbean 'feedback-machine' PART II: ANAMNESIS CARIBENSIS: COLUMBUS IN 1992 5. Columbus, the Memorious: Commemorations of the 500th Anniversary of the Discovery of the New World in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic 6. Christopher Columbus in the English Caribbean: Commemoration and Performance in Jamaica 7. Columbus in Martinique and Guadeloupe: Amnesia and Commemoration in the French Outremer 8. Columbus, theScapegoat, and the Zombie: Performance and Tales of the National Memory in Haiti Conclusion: Towards an Archipelagic Memory