Episode 841: Caribbean Romanticism with Kir Kuiken

“An aesthetics of the earth?... Yes. But an aesthetics of disruption and intrusion. Finding the fever of passion for the ideas of 'environment' (which I call surroundings) and 'ecology', both apparently such futile notions in these landscapes of desolation. Imagining the idea of love for the earth - so ridiculously inadequate or else frequently the basis for such sectarian intolerance - with all the strength of charcoal fires or sweet syrup.” – Édouard Glissant

How do we think about planet Earth? What's our relationship with it? Humans since the Enlightenment have been tempted to believe we've transformed and even – perhaps – tamed it. And yet, Earth is independent of us, and indifferent.

In Episode 841 on the History of Literature Podcast, Jacke talks to Kir Kuiken, whose book Adrift on the Earth: Caribbean Romanticism and Geopoetics uses pairings of Caribbean and Romantic-era authors to deepen our understanding of how we've related to the Earth from the Romantic era through our own.

Some of the authors discussed in Kuiken's book include the following:
Édouard Glissant, Erna Brodber, Jacques Roumain, Olive Senior, Patrick Chamoiseau, Frankétienne, and Daniel Maximin.