"Beyond Borders" is a multidisciplinary collection of essays with a focus on contemporary issues in Caribbean cultural studies. Culture and cultural identification are without a doubt highly charged political Goliaths with local and global ramifications. This is one of the reasons for the virtual boom the discipline has enjoyed, and the Caribbean is no exception. As a result, there is a growing demand for information in the field for both research and teaching purposes. The essays in this collection provide such a resource. They explore cross-cultural themes and issues across a range of disciplines that include literature, language, education, history and popular culture. They will interest a broad cross-section of regional and international readers, including a wide range of scholars, professional teachers, students and members of the general public wishing to understand the complex dynamics of Caribbean culture. The issues of cultural survival and negotiation with which most of these essays deal, serve to foreground a history of domination, resistance and marvelous transformations within and beyond the borders of this archipelago.
It is no longer possible to pass culture off as simply a matter of commonalities, interests and values, as if politics and power were innocent of influencing what gets defined and consumed as culture. "Beyond Borders: Cross-culturalism and the Caribbean Canon" offers a forum for contemporary debates on Caribbean culture in its ongoing process of evolution.