Diane Accaria-Zavala and Rodolfo Popelnik, eds. Prospero's Isles: The Presence of the Caribbean in the American Imaginary. Oxford: Macmillan Caribbean, 2004

Excerpt

Diane Accaria-Zavala and Rodolfo Popelnik are both professors at the University of Puerto Rico. Accaria-Zavala is a professor of film and American literature while Popelnik is an associate professor of the history of media and communication. Both have published and lectured internationally, and have collaborated to produce Prospero's Isles , an anthology of essays that explore the construction of "Caribbeaness" in North American cultural productions. according to the editors, Prospero's Isles aims to answer a range of questions:

How much of what is native to the Caribbean—ranging from the national or cultural traits to economic, political or aesthetic formulas—has left its mark on our powerful neighbor to the north? What affinities or affiliations link the two regions? What has the Caribbean region, or its native-born, contributed to the construction, transformation or even perpetuation, of essential elements within the American imaginary? What bearings have these on the literature, art, history or culture of American citizens?