Tumbridge, Mark (2012) Indenture wreathed in opium : Asian presence in the Caribbean : literary representations of Indo-Caribbean and Sino-Caribbean subjects from the 19th century to the present. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed large-scale migration from Asia to various parts of
the world, including the Caribbean, through the indentured labour system. My research will
analyse representations of indentured labour and Asian diasporic presence in Caribbean
literature. Firstly, focussing on 19th century journals, diaries, and other texts from the archive,
I will analyse how Indian and Chinese subjects are represented. Following this, a similar
analysis will address 19th-century literary representations of Asian subjects. Thirdly and in
response to these foregoing analyses, this thesis will be concerned with how 20th-century
authors renew and rejuvenate representations of indentured labourers and their descendants.
The theme that runs through the thesis is death in its literal and symbolic sense.
Throughout this thesis, I will pay close attention to the migrant's relation to the
voyage, the sea (kala pani), and arrival in the Caribbean, tracing how these become
symbolically important. The thesis will be concerned at each stage with tracing migrant
transnational experience and identity; as such, the focus for some subjects is their
identification with or relation to the creolisation process. Questions of gender and sexuality
will also be important categories for analysis, as will religious beliefs, socio-cultural
practices, and the use of vernacular forms. The structuring of narrative time and form within
each work will be examined with the aim of revealing the ideological underpinning behind
the texts and enabling a comparison. Some authors, such as Cristina García, examine
Britain's global imperial presence and explore interdependencies and relations among various
colonial structures and locations. In this respect, the connection between the indenture system
and opium production, distribution, and consumption is analysed with regard to its affect on
the representation of both Indian and Chinese subjects as well as the wider implications for
Empire. Therefore, the representation of how events and agendas in Asia impact upon
migration and the Caribbean experience will figure in my analysis of the subject as a
contested site of multiple colonial histories and trans-local affiliations.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Caribbean literature -- 19th century, Caribbean literature -- 20th century, Indians in literature, Chinese in literature, Indentured servants in literature, Migrant labor in literature, Caribbean Area -- Emigration and immigration, Indians -- Caribbean Area, Chinese -- Caribbean Area
Official Date:	March 2012
Dates:	Date Event March 2012 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for Caribbean Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Dabydeen, David ; Gilmore, John, 1956-
Sponsors:	David Nicholls Memorial Trust
Extent:	v, 287 leaves
Language:	eng

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