Creating An Archive from Colonial Records: Representations of the Caribbean in British Periodicals, 1750-1930

The periodization of Caribbean literature is a highly contested topic. Much of this periodization problem relates to the question of what should be included in this category of Caribbean literature, a question that became particularly pertinent during the postcolonial era. Many studies of Caribbean literature have traced its supposed origins to the period of the early to mid-twentieth century when many Caribbean territories were well on their way to postcolonial independence while disregarding works produced during the colonial period as they were considered to favor colonialism. Through examining how Caribbean literature appeared in the pre-1950 period, research conducted for the Printed Matters: Representations of the Caribbean website project and used in this thesis engages with the challenge of exposing critical views through addressing both Indigenous and Black Caribbean voices and anti-colonial sentiment. While the project aims to expand into global periodicals, my research focuses on the ways in which the Caribbean was represented in British periodicals, bringing attention to a topic that has received barely any scholarship. We aimed to prove that Indigenous Caribbean writers and Black Caribbean writers had a voice in these periodicals even if their voice was mostly overlooked during the colonial era. I argue that literature composed in the pre-1950 period and published in these British periodicals should be acknowledged as Caribbean literature, regardless of the fact that we primarily found white settler colonial authors. To portray this representation, this thesis takes an innovative approach by examining forty-five of the articles featured on the website dated between 1750 and 1910 and five additional articles dated between 1910 and 1930. Articles collected often incorporated various genres such as novels, poems, and short stories. These articles contribute to Caribbean literature because they portray that not all pre-1950 Caribbean literature was necessarily entirely pro-colonial in its discourse.