Surveying American Tropics ― A Literary Geography from New York to Rio

Surveying the American Tropics brings together the likes of Peter Hulme, Neil Whitehead, and Richard and Sally Price, among others, to examine the literary and cultural contributions of the American Tropics—an extended Caribbean that includes the southern United States, northern South America, and the Caribbean islands. Often separated, these regions share many similarities: massive influxes of Europeans and Africans, tropical and subtropical environments, and plantation-based socio-economic models, and their literature is collectively marked by fraught international relationships and the domination of indigenous groups—all for the sake of controlling the America’s many resources. Bringing these regions and their commonalities together under the same critical light, this volume sets new agendas for the study of American literature.

Maria Cristina Fumagalli is professor of literature at the University of Essex. She is the author of Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity. Peter Hulme is professor of literature at the University of Essex. He is the author of Cuba’s Wild East, also published by Liverpool University Press. Owen Robinson is senior lecturer in American literature at the University of Essex. Lesley Wylie is a lecturer in Latin American studies at the University of Leicester. She is the author of Colonial Tropes and Postcolonial Tricks, also published by Liverpool University Press.