Plural Masculinities and Postcoloniality in Earl Lovelace’s The Dragon Can’t Dance

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This essay aims to explore the representation of postcolonial masculinities in Trinidad, particularly lower‐class men’s masculinities in Earl Lovelace’s The Dragon Can’t Dance. The book shows how the postcolonial condition and colonial legacy modify, disrupt, and reconstruct new gender roles and the relationships between men. Postcolonial condition, I argue, causes the inversion of the traditional hierarchy of masculinities and the dramatic upheaval of gender (as a system) in post‐independent Trinidad. In this sense, this study examines the intersection of postcoloniality and gender throughout the representations of masculinities in the four male characters. In addition, reading postcolonial masculinities in The Dragon Can’t Dance requires an intersectional model which addresses postcolonial masculinity and other factors, such as ethnicity, social reputation, and the degree of manliness.
Although lower‐class men in the book share the experience of the postcolonial condition, the text displays the diversification of their masculinities. Intersectional approach, then, could be helpful to analyze these diverse masculinities. By reading The Dragon Can’t Dance through the impact of postcolonial trauma on the masculinities of lower‐class men, I argue that The Dragon Can’t Dance negates the monolithic notion of a (singular) postcolonial masculinity and presents new types of postcolonial masculinities.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 Lovelace, Earl, "The Wine of Astonishment" Heinemann 1983

2 Barriteau, Eudine, "The Political Economy of Gender in the Twentieth‐century Caribbean" Palgrave 2001

3 Harris, Max, "The Impotence of Dragons: Playing Devil in the Trinidad Carnival" 42 (42): 108-123, 1998

4 Lovelace, Earl, "The Emancipation‐Jouvay Tradition and the Almost Loss of Pan" 42 (42): 54-60, 1998

5 Lovelace, Earl, "The Dragon Can’t Dance" Persea 1979

6 Chevannes, Barry, "The Culture of Gender and Sexuality in the Caribbean" UP of Florida 215-233, 2003

7 Lewis, Linden, "The Culture of Gender and Sexuality in the Caribbean" UP of Florida 94-125, 2003

8 Lovelace, Earl, "Salt" Faber&Faber 1996

9 Bakhtin, Mikhail, "Rabelais and His World" Indiana UP 2008

10 Miller, Errol, "Men at Risk" Jamaica Publishing House 1991

11 Lewis, Linden, "Masculinity and the Dance of the Dragon: Reading Lovelace Discursively" 59 : 164-185, 1998

12 Connell, R. W., "Masculinities" U of California P 2005

13 Ekpa, Anthonia, "Literature and Black Aesthetics" Heinemann Educational Books 59-71, 1990

14 Lovelace, Earl, "Is Just a Movie" Faber 2011

15 Ramchand, Kenneth, "Interrogating Masculinity: Theoretical and Empirical Analyses" U of West Indies P 2004

16 Reddock, Rhoda E., "Interrogating Caribbean Masculinity: Theoretical and Empirical Analyses" U of West Indies P 2004

17 Life and Debt, "Dir. Stephanie Black" 2001

18 Mohammed, Patricia, "Caribbean Women at the Crossroads: The Paradox of Motherhood among Women of Barbados" U of the West Indies 1999

19 Schwarz, Bill, "Caribbean Literature after Independence: The Case of Earl Lovelace" Institute for the Study of the Americas 2008

20 Brereton, Bridget, "A History of Modern Trinidad" Heinemann 1783-1962, 1981