Erotic Islands: Art and Activism in the Queer Caribbean

Lyndon K. Gill

Published by Duke University Press 2018

Erotic Islands

Art and Activism in the Queer Caribbean

Lyndon K. Gill

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822372622

Overview
Contents

About this book

Lyndon K. Gill foregrounds a queer presence in foundational elements of Trinidad and Tobago's national imaginary—Carnival masquerade design, Calypso musicianship, and queer HIV/AIDS activism—to show how same-sex desire provides the means for the nation's queer population to develop survival and community building strategies.

Author / Editor information

Lyndon K. Gill is Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Reviews

"Highly recommended."

-- E. Pappas Choice

"Part history and part ethnography, Lyndon K. Gill’s Erotic Islands offers an innovative approach to nascent and long-established fields such as black diaspora studies and anthropology, correspondingly. Scholars of Caribbean studies or queer studies will likewise benefit from Erotic Islands."

-- Alejandro Stephano Escalante ASAP/Journal

"Reading Erotic Islands is a sensual exercise. The chapters, organized based on the senses, visual, aural and tactile engagement in art and activism, are punctuated by excerpts from Gill’s field diaries, also rich with sensory descriptions. . . . The text successfully engages the reader on multiple levels. Erotic Islands provides rich and provocative explorations of same-sex desire and instructions for applying the erotic lens, while making invaluable contribution to deeper understandings of the queer Caribbean."

-- Krystal Nandini Ghisyawan Anthropos

“I celebrate this book for resisting dominant imaginings of paradise and refuting the idea that the region is unlivable for same-sex-desiring persons. This work takes seriously the spaces of our Queer Caribbean lives with caring analysis.”

-- Angelique V. Nixon GLQ

“Some ethnographers are griots who rely on ethnography to reveal certain truths about the world. Lyndon Gill is one such scholar. Attentive to the transformative power of language, story-telling, and multiple registers of world-making, he reveals the power of ‘eros as a lens, vital for surveying the elaborate topography of connections we share as political, sensual, and spiritual beings’ (p. 11).”

-- Ana-Maurine Lara Asian Journal of Social Science

“Erotic Islands is a thought-provoking text that offers integral concepts to queer, diaspora, Black, and Caribbean studies. It is a pivotal tool that excavates the dynamism of queer Caribbean efforts toward recognition, safety, and autonomy.”

-- Sabia McCoy-Torres Transforming Anthropology

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
A Port of Entry Fetish and Folklore in a Yearning Region Publicly Available Download PDF	xxi
INTRODUCTION A Queer Cartography of Desire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
INTERLUDE I FROM FAR AFIELD
CHAPTER 1 Inheriting the Mask A History of Parody in Trinidad’s Carnival Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
CHAPTER 2 Peter Minshall’s Sacred Heart and the Erotic Art of Play Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
INTERLUDE II FROM FAR AFIELD
CHAPTER 3 Echoes of an Utterance A History of Gender Play in Calypso Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
CHAPTER 4 Calypso Rose’s “Palet” and the Sweet Treat of Erotic Aurality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
INTERLUDE III FROM FAR AFIELD
CHAPTER 5 A Generation with AIDS A History, A Critique Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
CHAPTER 6 Between Tongue and Teeth The Friends For Life Chatroom as Erotic Intervention Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
INTERLUDE IV FROM FAR AFIELD
CONCLUSION Black Queer Diaspora and Erotic Potentiality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 312
Illustrations
- Other: 36 illustrations, incl. 16 in color

eBook

Published: June 1, 2018
ISBN: 9780822372622