216 p., Explores the fashioning of Mary Seacole's public image as seen in Seacole's narrative, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, and the periodical press in the British mainland and the Jamaican colony. Contextualizes the precise historical moments Seacole details in her narrative as well as those moments during which Seacole achieves her greatest celebrity: the South American Republic of New Granada in the early 1850s; the Crimean War and its aftermath (1853-1860); Seacole's death (1881); the death of Seacole's sister Louisa Grant (1905); and Seacole's modern rise to fame in Jamaica and in the United Kingdom (c1990 to the present day). Through this contextualization the author argues that the fashioning of Seacole's public image reflects notions of race, nation, gender and colonial power throughout British history.
Discusses the themes of subjectivity and sexual, racial, and cultural identity in literature by LGBT Cuban authors, with particular focus given to the short stories "Piazza Margana" by Calvert Casey and "La más prohibida des todas" by Sonia Rivera-Valdés. The exiled status of the authors and its influence on their work is examined, and the different experiences of Cuban gay men and lesbians are explored.
