Ramabai Espinet

Ramabai Espinet
Born 1948
San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago
Occupation writer

Ramabai Espinet (born 1948) is an Indo-Caribbean poet, novelist, essayist, and critic from Trinidad and Tobago. Espinet was born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago.[1] She attended York University in Toronto, Canada before earning a Ph.D. at the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.[2] She currently teaches English at Seneca College.[3] Her writings on Euro-Creole women is influenced from works from Jean Rhys and Phyllis Shand Allfrey. Most of her works tie back to her Indo-Caribbean heritage. Sister Vision Press published her first four works in Toronto.

Influence

Espinet has stated that she desires to illustrate the experiences of Indo-Caribbeans and highlight the effects of alcoholism and abuse on West Indian women. West Indians have said that the book, The Swinging Bridge, gives them values, articulates their experiences, and contains “language for the healing” Espinet on the Swinging Bridge. Although Espinet talks specifically about San Fernandians, Indo-Caribbeans have noted that the book is universal and important because it tells the stories of their youth and represents their experiences for the larger society.

Works about Espinet

Reception

From her book, The Swinging Bridge, Ramabai Espinet is said to have to have created the “kala pani poetics.” The “kala pani poetics” is meaningful for two reasons: it transforms the marginalized widows in India into more autonomous members of society with mobility and it places an emphasis on the “mother history” of a scattered Indian lineage (Mehta 20).

Bibliography

External links

Mehta, Brinda. “ Engendering History: A Poetics of the kala pani in Ramabai Espinet’s The Swinging Bridge.” Small Axe (10:3) 2006, 19-36. 2006. Web. 15 April 2014.

References

  1. "Ramabai Espinet". Asian Heritage in Canada. Ryerson University Library & Archives. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  2. "Ramabai Espinet". Voices from the Gaps. University of Minnesota. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  3. "Ramabai Espinet". Caribbean Tales. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  4. Solbiac, R. (2012).Indian Memory in Ramabai Espinet's The Swinging Bridge: constructing an Indo-Trinidadian Diasporic Identity. Revue Etudes Caribéennes, n°21, https://etudescaribeennes.revues.org/5757
  5. Philp, Geoffrey. "Podcast of Ramabai Espinet @ Miami Book Fair 2006". Retrieved 11 December 2013.
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