Nicole Waller Knihy

This study combines approaches of the humanities and social sciences to explore contemporary Caribbean narratives of the historical trauma of slavery and the revolutionary or subversive strategies of anti-colonial struggle. Drawing on various works (novels, films, plays, political pamphlets) by writers and activists such as Frantz Fanon, Antonio Benítez-Rojo, Michelle Cliff, Erna Brodber, Wilson Harris, Iris Morales, Nicholasa Mohr, Culture Clash, and The Young Lords, the project traces narratives of historical slave uprisings, Maroon wars, and struggles against colonial and neo-colonial governments in and around the Caribbean. Contradictoy Violence addresses questions of the legitimacy of violence in the struggle for liberation, the price to be paid by individuals and groups for the decision to begin such a forceful struggle, the possibility of escaping the colonizers' value-system through 'reverse discourse,' and the limits and possibilities of 'writing violence.' In a reversal of older master narratives of the postcolonial nation, contemporary Caribbean works have produced new definitions of nationhood which nevertheless keep the nation intact as a site of agency and create an alternative vision of the Americas which could serve to 'remap' the geo-political boundaries existing on the American continent today.

This study explores American encounters with Islam from the colonial era to the present via narratives of captivity. Throughout American history, texts depicting Americans' captivity at the hands of Muslims have served to situate the American colonies and the American nation in an Atlantic context, creating cultural scripts that move beyond the scope of local histories to establish a mapping of the world into economic, political, religious, and racial spheres. 'American Encounters with Islam' traces the establishment of such scripts and examines how subsequent generations of Americans have adjusted or rewritten them to map their world and suit their political context. Texts include the autobiographical writings of Captain John Smith, letters and sermons by Cotton Mather, the political journal of James Leander Cathcart, Rick Bragg's book on the captivity of Jessica Lynch, and Diana Abu-Jaber's novel 'Crescent'.