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Introduction to Part III

from Part III - Tristram in the Tropics: or, Reading in Jamaica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2023

April G. Shelford
Affiliation:
American University, Washington DC
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Summary

Part III, “Tristram Shandy in the Tropics: or, Reading Enlightenment in Jamaica,” begins with vignettes that demonstrate how acquiring publications was as important for Jamaicans as it was for British people of the metropole and North America and that they did so for similar reasons. Part III thus addresses a significant lacuna in the histories of the book and reading, vigorous fields in European and early American Enlightenment studies. As in Parts I and II, Part III shows the continuity in a colonial context of metropolitan intellectual practices and their adaptation by colonists to suit their needs, interests, and purposes. It begins with an impressionistic survey of reading on the island that explores what publications colonists secured and how they did so. It then delves into the meaning of reading for two Jamaicans, the ex-overseer Thomas Thistlewood and the planter Robert Long, by focusing on two themes: race and slavery, and religion. While the practices of these two readers cannot be generalized to all Jamaican readers, they demonstrate how colonial readers took possession of Enlightenment through reading and suggest how their reading was informed by personal experience, social status, intellectual, and even spiritual aspirations.

Type
Chapter
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A Caribbean Enlightenment
Intellectual Life in the British and French Colonial Worlds, 1750–1792
, pp. 169 - 173
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Introduction to Part III
  • April G. Shelford, American University, Washington DC
  • Book: A Caribbean Enlightenment
  • Online publication: 14 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009360821.015
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  • Introduction to Part III
  • April G. Shelford, American University, Washington DC
  • Book: A Caribbean Enlightenment
  • Online publication: 14 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009360821.015
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction to Part III
  • April G. Shelford, American University, Washington DC
  • Book: A Caribbean Enlightenment
  • Online publication: 14 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009360821.015
Available formats
×