Searching for Safe Spaces: Afro-Caribbean Women Writers in Exile [Paperback]

Myriam Chancy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 1997

Home. Exile. Return. Words heavy with meaning and passion. For Myriam Chancy, these three themes animate the lives and writings of dispossessed Afro-Caribbean women. Understanding exile as flight from political persecution or types of oppression that single out women, Chancy concentrates on diasporic writers and filmmakers who depict the vulnerability of women to poverty and exploitation in their homelands and their search for safe refuge. These Afro-Caribbean feminists probe the complex issues of race, nationality, gender, sexuality, and class that limit women's lives.They portray the harsh conditions that all too commonly drive women into exile, depriving them of security and a sense of belonging in their adopted countries the United States, Canada, or England. As they rework traditional literary forms, artists such as Joan Riley, Beryl Gilroy, M. Nourbese Philip, Dionne Brand, Makeda Silvera, Audre Lorde, Rosa Guy, Michelle Cliff, and Marie Chauvet give voice to Afro-Caribbean women's alienation and longing to return home. Whether their return is realized geographically or metaphorically, the poems, fiction, and film considered in this book speak boldly of self-definition and transformation. Author note: Myriam J. A. Chancy is Associate Professor of English at Arizona State University, Tempe. She is the author of "Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women".

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] fine book. Searching for Safe Spaces explores some of the major issues of our historical moment: migration, exile, African diaspora, and the position of women within that context. It addresses some of the most vibrant new writings in the Americas and will bring wide readership to these excellent writers." --Gay Wilentz, author of Binding Cultures: Black Women Writers in Africa and the Diaspora

From the Publisher

In exile but finding no refuge, Afro-Caribbean women portray harsh lives --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (September 5, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566395402
• ISBN-13: 978-1566395403
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,508,735 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Myriam J. A. Chancy, Ph. D., is a Haitian writer/scholar born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and educated in Port-au-Prince, Quebec City, Winnipeg, and Halifax. Her first novel, Spirit of Haiti (Mango 2003), was a finalist in the Best First Book Category, Canada/Caribbean region, of the Commonwealth Prize 2004. She is also the author of Framing Silence : Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (Rutgers 1997), Searching for Safe Spaces : Afro-Caribbean Women Writers in Exile (Temple 1997; Choice OAB Award, 1998), a second novel, The Scorpion's Claw (Peepal Tree Press 2005) and The Loneliness of Angels (Peepal Tree Press 2009). Her work as Editor of Meridians (2002-2004) garnered the CELJ Phoenix Award for Editorial Achievement (2004). She is Professor of English in the United States where she currently resides.