Finding trans-Caribbean-ness to be a new type of emergent nationalism, Henke (political science, Metropolitan College of New York, US) and Magister (a researcher at the Center for Literary and
Cultural Studies, Germany) present 14 papers examining the construction of vernacular culture--"cultural expressions that are rooted within the sphere of the indigenous and popular"--across the
trans-Caribbean. Topics addressed include Afro-Surinamese and Indo-Surinamese as transnational identities in the Netherlands, the diversity of Caribbean culture in New York City, historical and
diasporic consciousness and family reunion rituals of Afro-Caribbean transnational families, Pentecostal identity and the popular music of Jamaica and Haiti, Olive Senior's use of Caribbean
orality in her short stories, the role of transnational hip hop in Trinidadian carnival, national and transnational identity in the work of Bruce St. John, the Amerindian transnational
experience in Pauline Melville's The Ventriloquist's Tale, and third wave feminism in the Caribbean. Annotation 穢2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
