Bodies and bones: feminist rehearsal and imagining Caribbean belonging

In Bodies and Bones, Tanya Shields argues that a repeatedengagement with the Caribbean's iconic and historic touchstones offers a new sense of(inter)national belonging that brings an alternative and dynamic vision to the gendered legacy ofbrutality against black bodies, flesh, and bone.

Using a distinctive methodology she calls"feminist rehearsal" to chart the Caribbean's multiple and contradictory accounts ofhistorical events, the author highlights the gendered and emergent connections between art, history,and belonging.

By drawing on a significant range of genres-novels, shortstories, poetry, plays, public statuary, and painting-Shields proposes innovativeinterpretations of the work of Grace Nichols, Pauline Melville, Fred D'Aguiar, AlejoCarpentier, Edwidge Danticat, Aim Csaire, Marie-Hlne Cauvin, and RoseMarie Desruisseau.

She shows how empathetic alliances can challenge both hierarchical institutionsand regressive nationalisms and facilitate more democratic interaction.