The Magic of Patwa in Bluebeard and Brer Anancy : Colonial Oppression and the Transgressive Power of Language

Abstract: Caribbean Renaissance author the Rt. Hon. Dr. Louise Bennett-Coverley (1919–2006) went by “Miss Lou” for most of her artistic career. Her Jamaican vernacular poetry, stories, songs, and performances were nothing short of revolutionary in colonial Jamaica. In 1949, Bennett-Coverley put that power on stage in the first Caribbean pantomime, Bluebeard and Brer Anancy . Bennett-Coverley brought the power of Patwa and traditional Jamaican folklore to the imported British fairy-tale tradition, initiating a new era of Caribbean pantomimes in the British Caribbean.