The 'air of liberty' : narratives of the South Atlantic past / Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Phaf-Rheinberger, Ineke.

Series:

Cross/cultures ; 96.

Cross/cultures ; 96

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Netherlands Antillean literature (Dutch)--History and criticism.

Netherlands Antillean literature (Dutch).

Netherlands Antilles--History.

Netherlands Antilles.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (247 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; New York : Rodopi, 2008.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

data file

Summary:

The Caribbean imagination as framed within a Dutch historical setting has deep Portuguese-African roots. The Seven Provinces were the first European power, in the first half of the 17th century, to challenge the Iberian countries directly for a share in the slave trade. This book analyzes the philosophy underlying this transoceanic link, when contacts with Africa started to be developed. The ambiguous morality of the ‘air of liberty’ governing the Afro-Portuguese past had its impact on the creole cultures (white, black, Jewish) of the Dutch territories of Suriname and Curaçao. Although this influence is gradually disappearing, it is astonishing to witness the engagement with which writers and visual artists have interpreted this heritage in their different ways. Recent narratives from Angola and Brazil offer an appropriate starting-point for an examination of strategies of self-representation and national consolidation in works by authors from the Dutch Caribbean. In order to reveal this complex historical pattern, the (formerly) Dutch-related port communities are conceived of as cultural agents whose ‘lettered cities’ (Ángel Rama) have engaged in critical dialogue with the heritage of the South Atlantic trade in human lives. Artists and writers discussed include (colonial period): Caspar Barlaeus, David Nassy, Frans Post, and John Gabriel Stedman; (modern period): Frank Martinus Arion, Cola Debrot, Gabriel García Márquez, Albert Helman, Francisco Herrera Luque, Boeli van Leeuwen, Tip Marugg, Alberto Mussa, Pepetela, Julio Perrenal, and Mário Pinto de Andrade.

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Mauritsstad–Recife in Seventeenth-Century Brazil

Amsterdam and the South Atlantic

The Jewish-Portuguese Nation in the Colony of Suriname

The Maroon and the Creole as Narrative Tropes

Manuel Piar and the Struggle for Independence in Latin America

Popular Rhythms and Political Voices in Curaçao

New Landscapes, Creole Belonging

The South Atlantic Revisited

Concluding Remarks

Works Cited

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

94-012-0583-3

1-4356-4435-2

OCLC:

714567297

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789401205832 DOI