Review by Choice Review
In this unique study, Myers (Iowa State Univ.) looks at national identity and the relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic from a literary persepctive. She seeks to "reposition Haiti on the literary map of the Dominican Republic ... challenging the physical space of the border and its history of blurred lines" (p. 2). In addition to analyzing Dominican authors, Myers evaluates works by Dominican American, Haitian American, and Latinx authors, to show how their varied texts envision a third space, neither Haitian nor Dominican, alluding to the interdependent and interethnic nature of identity. In the introduction Myers provides the theoretical framework, including Gloria Anzaldúa's border theory, Michel Foucault's heterotopia, and Homi Bhabha's third space. Chapter 1 explores Dominican works written during the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, a period of marked anti-Haitian sentiment, and chapter 2 delves into post-Trujillo literature, with a focus on Dominican writer Marcio Veloz Maggiolo. The remaining two chapters examine works by Dominican Americans, Haitian Americans, and a Puerto Rican author to illustrate the various literary representations of the physical and metaphorical Haitian Dominican border. Diasporic texts exemplify Dominican, Haitian, and Latinx peoples' shared experiences back home and within the US immigrant community. This is a vital contribution to Caribbean studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Yvette Fuentes, Nova Southeastern University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
