Empty treasure chests dumped from departed ships is a quotation taken from David Dabydeen's
poem The Old Map in which the hope of a new world is green but green symbolizes also the
gangrene of the sailors. Such rather unsavory paradoxes can be found in the works of
contemporary (post)postcolonial writers who engage in a dialogue with literary history while
actively re-shaping contemporary culture. Far from seeking easy reconciliations the
contemporary (post)postcolonial writers rewrite the colonial experiences in relation to art and
literary works. The theme of this volume are the works by and about David Dabydeen a Guianese
British writer poet and literary scholar whose efforts have always been directed toward
re-creating the lives forever lost those of nameless slaves and coolies of the West Indies.
His inspiration in turn were among others the paintings of William Hogarth and Joseph
Mallord William Turner. Accordingly the papers collected in this book address the question of
(post)colonialism in a contemporary (post)postcolonial reality.
