Peer-reviewed articles by Paul Humphrey
Myth and Environmentalism. Arts of Resilience for a Damaged Planet, 2023
(Abstract only – full text under copyright; doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003348535-8): This c... more (Abstract only – full text under copyright; doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003348535-8): This chapter analyzes Afrodiasporic myth, spirituality, and the environment in independent comics from Brazil and the Caribbean diaspora. Framed by the notion of the Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea as an "oceanic archive" (DeLoughrey 2017), it explores how Hugo Canuto's Contos dos Orixás (Tales of the Orixás), Greg Anderson-Elysée's Marassa and Is'nana the Were-Spider, and Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez's La Borinqueña reject the colonial designation of the sea as aqua nullius and weave many histories, stories, and mythologies into the fabric of the transatlantic space in which these word-drawn narratives are situated. The comics challenge the extractivism and exploitation of coloniality to foreground reciprocal relationships between the human, nonhuman, and more-than-human. Drawing on ancestral and ritual knowledge and the many "sea ontologies" of the waters (DeLoughrey 2017), the chapter places these 21 stcentury narratives into conversation with the work of M. Jacqui Alexander, Christina Sharpe, and Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley, among others, to discern the ways that Candomblé, Vodou, Santería, and Taíno spiritualities present a decolonial framework for sustainable relationships with the environment across the region.
Caribbean Quarterly, 2022
Update: Article now available at https://doi.org/10.1080/00086495.2022.2105026
This article ex... more Update: Article now available at https://doi.org/10.1080/00086495.2022.2105026
This article examines the queer narratives in Dominican author and singer-songwriter Rita Indiana's acclaimed La mucama de Omicunlé (2015, Tentacle [2018]) and Hecho en Saturno (2018, Made in Saturn [2020]). It reads these novels in conjunction with theories of queer time and space, heterocoloniality and nonnormative sexuality, and Afrodiasporic spiritualities in the Caribbean to explore Rita Indiana's representation and subversion of hegemonic masculinity and heteronormativity in the Dominican Republic and the wider region. Drawing on work by Jack Halberstam, Christina Sharpe, Kara Keeling, and Paul B. Preciado, among others, it focuses on Rita Indiana's use of fluid time and bodies, religious and spiritual practice, and the trope of Francisco Goya's Saturno devorando a su hijo (Saturn devouring his son) to interrogate notions of gender and sexual identity, colonial temporality, failure, and queer futurity.
Free e-print available (link in PDF).
Latin American Literary Review, 2021
This article examines graphic narratives of Hurricane María in independent comics published both ... more This article examines graphic narratives of Hurricane María in independent comics published both in Puerto Rico and its US diaspora. Focusing on María (Rosa Colón and Carla Rodríguez 2018), Temporada (Rosaura Rodríguez 2019), and La Borinqueña (Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez 2016, 2018), it analyzes the ways these works bear witness to the ‘foreshocks and aftershocks’ of the hurricane while delineating a decolonial future for Puerto Rico (Bonilla and LeBrón). The analysis begins by reflecting on the comics’ form, such as frames, text, and the space of the gutter, to explore the interactions between their structure and content and the ways in which they situate the reader in a generative process of memorializing. It then turns to questions of sustainability, particularly Rosaura Rodríguez’s use of watercolors, and how these titles seek to overcome the current environmental and political crises the archipelago is facing by foregrounding a close, community-oriented relationship with the natural environment. In Miranda-Rodriguez’s comics, this is framed within Indigenous and Afrodiasporic spiritualities and the need to reexamine Puerto Rican history in order to interrogate its experience of coloniality. Though distinct in their form and genre, these comics–alongside complementary short comics from Puerto Rico and the diaspora–critique the extractivist, colonial relationship with the US and invite readers to imagine sustainable futures drawn through a Boricua-centered, decolonial lens.
Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 2019
This article examines the figure of death in Eugenio Hernández Espinosa's play María Antonia (196... more This article examines the figure of death in Eugenio Hernández Espinosa's play María Antonia (1967) and Sergio Giral's cinematic adaptation (María Antonia, 1990), focusing on the gendered performance of death through the character of Cumachela and her relationship with the work's eponymous protagonist. First considering the depiction in the play of death (Ikú) as a figure with whom the living can interact within the framework of the Cuban Santería/ Regla de Ocha religion, I then explore the presentation of Ikú as an omnipresent agent within the play and the manner in which this female iteration of death both reinforces and challenges patriarchal social and religious frameworks examined therein. Further, I draw on work by scholars of urban decay in Havana to analyse the inscription of death into the fabric of the city and the ways in which Cumachela/ Ikú's performance renders her part of the palimpsest of the Cuban capital through her physical and conceptual association with its ruins.
Resumen
En este artículo se propone examinar la figura de la muerte en la obra teatral María Antonia de Eugenio Hernández Espinosa (1967) y su adaptación cinematográfica de Sergio Giral (María Antonia, 1990), centrándose en la representación generizada de la muerte, encarnada en el personaje de Cumachela, y en la relación entre ésta y la protagonista epónima de la obra. Primero, se considera la manera en que la obra representa a la muerte (Ikú) como una figura dentro del marco religioso cubano de la Santería/ Regla de Ocha con que los individuos pueden interactuar; desde allí se explora la omnipresencia de este personaje en María Antonia, tanto como la manera en que esta versión femenina de la muerte reafirma y cuestiona simultáneamente las estructuras sociales y religiosas del patriarcado examinadas en la obra. Es más, recurre a los estudios del declive urbano en La Habana para analizar la inscripción de la muerte en el entramado de la ciudad y el proceso por el cual Cumachela/ Ikú se convierte en una parte del palimpsesto de la capital cubana por medio de la asociación física y conceptual que surge entre ella y las ruinas urbanas.
Studies in Comics, 2019
This article examines the ways in which Afro-Caribbean superheroes engage with questions of ident... more This article examines the ways in which Afro-Caribbean superheroes engage with questions of identity, movement and belonging as they embody diverse and culturally hybrid populations within the North American imaginary. First engaging with scholarship regarding the writing of race and marginalized cultures in US comics to situate the Santerians, Brother Voodoo/Doctor Voodoo and Groot within the larger comic book oeuvre, it turns to explore how these Marvel characters incorporate the myths and spiritual powers of Cuban/Puerto Rican Santería and Haitian Vodou into the metropolitan narratives in which they are depicted. As corporeal representations of these religions within the cultural landscapes of New York City and New Orleans, these transnational superheroes have each been physically and/or culturally displaced to the margins but see their hybrid identities valorized to greater or lesser degrees within the cultural framework of the metropolis. However, in spite of these characters having challenged stereotypical and hegemonic representations of racial and ethnic alterity, they are still subject to a clear hierarchy between the metropolis and the periphery. This is most clearly communicated through the restrictions and processes of othering that the Santerians and Brother Voodoo/Doctor Voodoo suffer, in comparison to the success and global mobility enjoyed by those more established characters alongside which they appear. As such, although the writing of these characters is both culturally sensitive and has permitted the development of new knowledges within the comic metropolis, at the same time these superheroes remain subordinate to their white, metropolitan counterparts and see themselves marginalized within the very narrative that has sought to celebrate their transnational and hybrid identities.
Capital Culture: Perspectives in Ethnic Studies II, 2019
After the 2010 earthquake that wreaked such destruction in the Haitian capital and its environs, ... more After the 2010 earthquake that wreaked such destruction in the Haitian capital and its environs, the loudest voices on the international stage were those of aid agencies, NGOs, foreign journalists and celebrities. As Gina Athena Ulysse writes, “new narratives” were needed to fill the “lacuna of stories from Haitian perspectives” (243). To this end, this essay turns to Makenzy Orcel’s (2010) "Les immortelles" and Kettly Mars’s (2013) "Aux frontières de la soif" to analyse the narratives of prostitution they recount. The novels not only give voice to Haitian women and girls silenced by death or physical violence, but also critique disaster capitalism in Haiti by examining the exploitation of bodies, spaces and the disaster itself.
Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language & Culture, 2018
In her 2015 novel La mucama de Omicunlé [in English: Tentacle, translated by Achy Obejas (2018)],... more In her 2015 novel La mucama de Omicunlé [in English: Tentacle, translated by Achy Obejas (2018)], Rita Indiana combines science fiction and African-derived religious practices of the Caribbean in a narrative that traverses boundaries in time, class, and identity politics within the context of environmental disaster. This essay examines the use of the sea as a space of unity and division, death and regeneration, and analyses the multiple sexual, gender, and religious identities that the protagonist embodies. In so doing, it details the complex cultural and religious tapestry that Indiana weaves throughout her novel, a framework that centres on the multivalent nature of the many bodies—of water and people alike—that both join and divide the islands of the Caribbean.
En su novela publicada en 2015, La mucama de Omicunlé [en inglés: Tentacle, traducida por Achy Obejas (2018)], Rita Indiana une la ciencia ficción con las prácticas religiosas afrocaribeñas para escribir una narrativa, localizada en el contexto de un desastre medioambiental, que atraviesa las fronteras dentro de las nociones del tiempo, de las clases sociales y de las políticas identitarias. Este ensayo examina el uso del mar como espacio de unidad y división, de la muerte y la regeneración, y analiza las múltiples identidades sexuales, culturales y de género que encarna el protagonista. Así, detalla la rica complejidad del manto que teje Indiana en su novela con hilos de varias culturas y religiones, que juntos forman un marco narrativo que se centra en la polivalencia de los diversos cuerpos—tanto de agua como de personas—que conectan y separan las islas del Caribe.
International Journal of Francophone Studies, 2014
Across her numerous short stories and novels, Kettly Mars explores the many influences present in... more Across her numerous short stories and novels, Kettly Mars explores the many influences present in the culture and society of her native Haiti. This article examines the manner in which the fractured self of the protagonist in her 2008 novel Fado is reconstituted within a context of Haitian Vodou interwoven with Portuguese fado. A divided yet single whole, the protagonist’s body traverses a series of fragmented spaces, which, in the complex cultural sphere the author creates, enables the intersection of the socio-political, spiritual and psychological planes. By focusing on the multifaceted nature of female sexuality and drawing on the notion of transcorporeality in Vodou spirituality, the analysis offered unpicks the multiple interactions – physical and spiritual – between individuals and discrete subjectivities in the novel. It thereby delineates a reading that goes beyond the blurring of reason and madness to point to the reconstitution of the fractured self by exploring female sexuality.
Dans ses nombreux romans et nouvelles, Kettly Mars explore les influences multiples présentes dans la culture et la société de son Haïti natal. Cet article examine la façon avec laquelle le soi fracturé de la protagoniste de Fado, son roman de 2008, est reconstitué dans un contexte où le vodou haïtien s’entremêle avec le fado portugais. Une entité divisée mais unie, le corps de la protagoniste traverse une série d’espaces fragmentés, ce qui permet, dans la sphère culturelle complexe créée par l’auteur, l’intersection du sociopolitique, du spirituel et du psychologique. L’analyse se focalise sur la pluralité inhérente à la sexualité féminine et fait appel à la notion de la transcorporalité dans la spiritualité du vodou afin d’expliquer les interactions multiples – physiques et spirituelles – entre les individus et les subjectivités discrètes du roman. Ainsi, elle présente une interprétation qui va au-delà de la déconstruction des frontières de la raison et de la folie pour indiquer la reconstitution du soi fracturé atteinte à travers une exploration de la sexualité féminine.
Journal of Haitian Studies, 2012
This article delineates how Cuban-Puerto Rican author Mayra Montero’s works present a trans-Carib... more This article delineates how Cuban-Puerto Rican author Mayra Montero’s works present a trans-Caribbean interpretation of the concept of nation within the intersecting framework of African-derived religions across the region. The analysis demonstrates that her novels allow for a discourse of nation to be conceived in a manner that goes beyond the borders of the nation-state and focuses on the female body as the nodal point between the physical and spiritual planes in her texts. Collapsing the male-female, public-private dichotomy, her texts challenge patriarchal notions of historiography and provide a complex historical account that permits both the diversity and interconnected nature of the region to come to the fore.
Books by Paul Humphrey
Legenda/MHRA, 2019
Ebook available via JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16kkxh9
Print copy available from yo... more Ebook available via JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16kkxh9
Print copy available from your favourite bookseller: https://bookshop.org/books/santeria-vodou-and-resistance-in-caribbean-literature-daughters-of-the-spirits/9781781887028
(The attached file includes the introduction to the book.)
African-derived religious traditions like Santería and Vodou have long been a site of political, cultural and social resistance in the Caribbean. Through his focus on the body as the juncture between the physical and spiritual planes, Humphrey’s analysis of a number of Caribbean novels and plays foregrounds the complex nature of women’s negotiation of religious, social and political life as participants in these marginalized religious communities. Examining works from authors such as Cuban playwright Eugenio Hernández Espinosa (1936-), Haitian novelists Kettly Mars (1958-) and Marie Chauvet (1916-1973), and Cuban-Puerto Rican writer Mayra Montero (1952-), he demonstrates the manner in which the worldviews offered by Santería and Vodou permit the divisions within and between concepts such as gender, sexuality, womanhood, space and nation to be transcended. As a result, not only do these narratives resist and subvert hegemonic and patriarchal discourses, but also provide a means through which the voice of the marginalized can be heard.
Book reviews by Paul Humphrey
Bulletin of Francophone Postcolonial Studies, 2014
Doctoral thesis by Paul Humphrey
Uploads
Peer-reviewed articles by Paul Humphrey
This article examines the queer narratives in Dominican author and singer-songwriter Rita Indiana's acclaimed La mucama de Omicunlé (2015, Tentacle [2018]) and Hecho en Saturno (2018, Made in Saturn [2020]). It reads these novels in conjunction with theories of queer time and space, heterocoloniality and nonnormative sexuality, and Afrodiasporic spiritualities in the Caribbean to explore Rita Indiana's representation and subversion of hegemonic masculinity and heteronormativity in the Dominican Republic and the wider region. Drawing on work by Jack Halberstam, Christina Sharpe, Kara Keeling, and Paul B. Preciado, among others, it focuses on Rita Indiana's use of fluid time and bodies, religious and spiritual practice, and the trope of Francisco Goya's Saturno devorando a su hijo (Saturn devouring his son) to interrogate notions of gender and sexual identity, colonial temporality, failure, and queer futurity.
Free e-print available (link in PDF).
Resumen
En este artículo se propone examinar la figura de la muerte en la obra teatral María Antonia de Eugenio Hernández Espinosa (1967) y su adaptación cinematográfica de Sergio Giral (María Antonia, 1990), centrándose en la representación generizada de la muerte, encarnada en el personaje de Cumachela, y en la relación entre ésta y la protagonista epónima de la obra. Primero, se considera la manera en que la obra representa a la muerte (Ikú) como una figura dentro del marco religioso cubano de la Santería/ Regla de Ocha con que los individuos pueden interactuar; desde allí se explora la omnipresencia de este personaje en María Antonia, tanto como la manera en que esta versión femenina de la muerte reafirma y cuestiona simultáneamente las estructuras sociales y religiosas del patriarcado examinadas en la obra. Es más, recurre a los estudios del declive urbano en La Habana para analizar la inscripción de la muerte en el entramado de la ciudad y el proceso por el cual Cumachela/ Ikú se convierte en una parte del palimpsesto de la capital cubana por medio de la asociación física y conceptual que surge entre ella y las ruinas urbanas.
En su novela publicada en 2015, La mucama de Omicunlé [en inglés: Tentacle, traducida por Achy Obejas (2018)], Rita Indiana une la ciencia ficción con las prácticas religiosas afrocaribeñas para escribir una narrativa, localizada en el contexto de un desastre medioambiental, que atraviesa las fronteras dentro de las nociones del tiempo, de las clases sociales y de las políticas identitarias. Este ensayo examina el uso del mar como espacio de unidad y división, de la muerte y la regeneración, y analiza las múltiples identidades sexuales, culturales y de género que encarna el protagonista. Así, detalla la rica complejidad del manto que teje Indiana en su novela con hilos de varias culturas y religiones, que juntos forman un marco narrativo que se centra en la polivalencia de los diversos cuerpos—tanto de agua como de personas—que conectan y separan las islas del Caribe.
Dans ses nombreux romans et nouvelles, Kettly Mars explore les influences multiples présentes dans la culture et la société de son Haïti natal. Cet article examine la façon avec laquelle le soi fracturé de la protagoniste de Fado, son roman de 2008, est reconstitué dans un contexte où le vodou haïtien s’entremêle avec le fado portugais. Une entité divisée mais unie, le corps de la protagoniste traverse une série d’espaces fragmentés, ce qui permet, dans la sphère culturelle complexe créée par l’auteur, l’intersection du sociopolitique, du spirituel et du psychologique. L’analyse se focalise sur la pluralité inhérente à la sexualité féminine et fait appel à la notion de la transcorporalité dans la spiritualité du vodou afin d’expliquer les interactions multiples – physiques et spirituelles – entre les individus et les subjectivités discrètes du roman. Ainsi, elle présente une interprétation qui va au-delà de la déconstruction des frontières de la raison et de la folie pour indiquer la reconstitution du soi fracturé atteinte à travers une exploration de la sexualité féminine.
Books by Paul Humphrey
Print copy available from your favourite bookseller: https://bookshop.org/books/santeria-vodou-and-resistance-in-caribbean-literature-daughters-of-the-spirits/9781781887028
(The attached file includes the introduction to the book.)
African-derived religious traditions like Santería and Vodou have long been a site of political, cultural and social resistance in the Caribbean. Through his focus on the body as the juncture between the physical and spiritual planes, Humphrey’s analysis of a number of Caribbean novels and plays foregrounds the complex nature of women’s negotiation of religious, social and political life as participants in these marginalized religious communities. Examining works from authors such as Cuban playwright Eugenio Hernández Espinosa (1936-), Haitian novelists Kettly Mars (1958-) and Marie Chauvet (1916-1973), and Cuban-Puerto Rican writer Mayra Montero (1952-), he demonstrates the manner in which the worldviews offered by Santería and Vodou permit the divisions within and between concepts such as gender, sexuality, womanhood, space and nation to be transcended. As a result, not only do these narratives resist and subvert hegemonic and patriarchal discourses, but also provide a means through which the voice of the marginalized can be heard.
Book reviews by Paul Humphrey
Doctoral thesis by Paul Humphrey
This article examines the queer narratives in Dominican author and singer-songwriter Rita Indiana's acclaimed La mucama de Omicunlé (2015, Tentacle [2018]) and Hecho en Saturno (2018, Made in Saturn [2020]). It reads these novels in conjunction with theories of queer time and space, heterocoloniality and nonnormative sexuality, and Afrodiasporic spiritualities in the Caribbean to explore Rita Indiana's representation and subversion of hegemonic masculinity and heteronormativity in the Dominican Republic and the wider region. Drawing on work by Jack Halberstam, Christina Sharpe, Kara Keeling, and Paul B. Preciado, among others, it focuses on Rita Indiana's use of fluid time and bodies, religious and spiritual practice, and the trope of Francisco Goya's Saturno devorando a su hijo (Saturn devouring his son) to interrogate notions of gender and sexual identity, colonial temporality, failure, and queer futurity.
Free e-print available (link in PDF).
Resumen
En este artículo se propone examinar la figura de la muerte en la obra teatral María Antonia de Eugenio Hernández Espinosa (1967) y su adaptación cinematográfica de Sergio Giral (María Antonia, 1990), centrándose en la representación generizada de la muerte, encarnada en el personaje de Cumachela, y en la relación entre ésta y la protagonista epónima de la obra. Primero, se considera la manera en que la obra representa a la muerte (Ikú) como una figura dentro del marco religioso cubano de la Santería/ Regla de Ocha con que los individuos pueden interactuar; desde allí se explora la omnipresencia de este personaje en María Antonia, tanto como la manera en que esta versión femenina de la muerte reafirma y cuestiona simultáneamente las estructuras sociales y religiosas del patriarcado examinadas en la obra. Es más, recurre a los estudios del declive urbano en La Habana para analizar la inscripción de la muerte en el entramado de la ciudad y el proceso por el cual Cumachela/ Ikú se convierte en una parte del palimpsesto de la capital cubana por medio de la asociación física y conceptual que surge entre ella y las ruinas urbanas.
En su novela publicada en 2015, La mucama de Omicunlé [en inglés: Tentacle, traducida por Achy Obejas (2018)], Rita Indiana une la ciencia ficción con las prácticas religiosas afrocaribeñas para escribir una narrativa, localizada en el contexto de un desastre medioambiental, que atraviesa las fronteras dentro de las nociones del tiempo, de las clases sociales y de las políticas identitarias. Este ensayo examina el uso del mar como espacio de unidad y división, de la muerte y la regeneración, y analiza las múltiples identidades sexuales, culturales y de género que encarna el protagonista. Así, detalla la rica complejidad del manto que teje Indiana en su novela con hilos de varias culturas y religiones, que juntos forman un marco narrativo que se centra en la polivalencia de los diversos cuerpos—tanto de agua como de personas—que conectan y separan las islas del Caribe.
Dans ses nombreux romans et nouvelles, Kettly Mars explore les influences multiples présentes dans la culture et la société de son Haïti natal. Cet article examine la façon avec laquelle le soi fracturé de la protagoniste de Fado, son roman de 2008, est reconstitué dans un contexte où le vodou haïtien s’entremêle avec le fado portugais. Une entité divisée mais unie, le corps de la protagoniste traverse une série d’espaces fragmentés, ce qui permet, dans la sphère culturelle complexe créée par l’auteur, l’intersection du sociopolitique, du spirituel et du psychologique. L’analyse se focalise sur la pluralité inhérente à la sexualité féminine et fait appel à la notion de la transcorporalité dans la spiritualité du vodou afin d’expliquer les interactions multiples – physiques et spirituelles – entre les individus et les subjectivités discrètes du roman. Ainsi, elle présente une interprétation qui va au-delà de la déconstruction des frontières de la raison et de la folie pour indiquer la reconstitution du soi fracturé atteinte à travers une exploration de la sexualité féminine.
Print copy available from your favourite bookseller: https://bookshop.org/books/santeria-vodou-and-resistance-in-caribbean-literature-daughters-of-the-spirits/9781781887028
(The attached file includes the introduction to the book.)
African-derived religious traditions like Santería and Vodou have long been a site of political, cultural and social resistance in the Caribbean. Through his focus on the body as the juncture between the physical and spiritual planes, Humphrey’s analysis of a number of Caribbean novels and plays foregrounds the complex nature of women’s negotiation of religious, social and political life as participants in these marginalized religious communities. Examining works from authors such as Cuban playwright Eugenio Hernández Espinosa (1936-), Haitian novelists Kettly Mars (1958-) and Marie Chauvet (1916-1973), and Cuban-Puerto Rican writer Mayra Montero (1952-), he demonstrates the manner in which the worldviews offered by Santería and Vodou permit the divisions within and between concepts such as gender, sexuality, womanhood, space and nation to be transcended. As a result, not only do these narratives resist and subvert hegemonic and patriarchal discourses, but also provide a means through which the voice of the marginalized can be heard.