Book review : The world as abyss : the Caribbean and critical thought in the Anthropocene

Abstract

With empirical distinction, in The world as abyss, Jonathan Pugh and David Chandler embrace an unconventional and unique approach, described as “abyssal” to reflect on and critically question conventional notions of modernity. They confront the Western preoccupation with saving the world – especially the Caribbean – and Western notions of logic, reasoning, progress, and civilization. Positioning and leveraging Caribbean frames of reference and critical theorizations, the book problematizes colonialism and many of its entailments and entanglements, contemporary experiences which mirror the colonial experience, and “post-colonial” capitalism, among other things. While attributing many of the current social, political, and environmental ills in the Caribbean to historical racial violence and commodification, The world as abyss offers a ‘reality check’, which rejects modernist assumptions about progress and economic development that have often happened at the expense of human development in the global south and developing world.