Just Below South is the first book to examine the U.S. South and the
Caribbean as a "regional interculture" shaped by performance--as a space
defined not so much by a shared set of geographical boundaries or by a
single, common culture as by the weave of performances and identities
moving across and throughout it. By offering fresh ways for thinking
about region, language, and performance, the volume helps to reimagine
the possibilities for American Studies. It advances beyond current
analyses of historical or literary commonalities between the South and
the Caribbean to explore startling and significant connections between a
range of performances, including Trinidadian carnival, Civil War
reenactments, the Martinican dance form kalenda, dramatic adaptations of
Uncle Tom's Cabin, rituals of spirit possession, the teaching of Haitian
Kreyòl, the translation of Louisiana Creole, and the imaginative
"travels" of southern and Caribbean writers.
While generating textual conversations among scholars of Francophone,
Anglophone, and Hispanophone literature and culture and forging
innovative ties between cultural studies, performance studies,
linguistics, literary analysis, and studies of the African diaspora,
these essays raise provocative new questions about race, ethnicity,
gender, class, and nationality.
ContributorsJessica Adams, University of California, Berkeley * Carolyn
Vellenga Berman, The New School * Anne Malena, University of Alberta *
Cécile Accilien, Columbus State University, Georgia * Don E. Walicek,
University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras * Julian Gerstin, San Jose State
University * Rawle Gibbons, University of the West Indies, St.
Augustine * Kathleen M. Gough, University of Glasgow * Shirley
Toland-Dix, University of South Florida, Tampa * Michael P. Bibler,
University of Mary Washington * Jana Evans Braziel, University of
Cincinnati
