Diasporic, Displaced, Alienated or Shared

Abstract

With a focus on Caribbean Literary Archives, this chapter examines the concepts of ‘diasporic archives’, ‘displaced’ or ‘alienated’ archives and ‘shared archival heritage’ and discusses how applicable these terms are to the materials. These concepts are important for within the general field of literary archives, Caribbean Literary Archives can be said to hold a special place. This is chiefly as a result of the diasporic nature of the collections, the turbulent history of the region, the growing body of Caribbean creative works, many of which have received international acclaim and the competition among institutions to acquire literary collections. Caribbean Literary Archives cannot be defined by their physical location because they exist in multiple locations chiefly North America, the United Kingdom and in the Caribbean region itself. This dispersal is viewed in the context of Caribbean history, a hallmark of which has been movements of people and their records in a general environment of ‘displacement’. The consequences of this displacement as far as literary archives are concerned will be considered. The ‘migration’ of collections to institutions in the metropolitan countries is of particular concern to countries of the Caribbean region since these materials form part of the region's cultural heritage. Some of the measures Caribbean librarians and archivists can institute to acquire more of these collections will be discussed.

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