Illustrations  ix

Abbreviations  xiii

Acknowledgments  xv

Introduction: Tropicalization: The Aesthetics and Politics of Space in Jamaica and the Bahamas   1

1. Framing The New Jamaica: Feasting on the Picturesque Tropical Landscape  27

2. Developing the Tropics: The Politics of the Picturesque in the Bahamas  92

3. Through the Looking Glass: Visualizing the Sea as Icon of the Bahamas  156

4. Diving into the Racial Waters of Beach Space in Jamaica: Tropical Modernity and the Myrtle Bank Hotels Pool  204

5. I Am Rendered Speechless by Your Idea of Beauty: The Picturesque in History and Art in the Postcolony  252

Epilogue: Tropical Futures: Civilizing Citizens and Uncivilizing Tourists  297

Notes  307

References  331

Illustration Credits  349

Index  355

Krista Thompson is the winner of the 2009 David C. Driskell Award, presented by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

“Although it frequently seems that the old adage holds true, and there are really no new ideas under the sun, only new writers (or something to that effect), An Eye for the Tropics reads as a maiden, thoroughly researched, and highly successful journey over previously unexplored territory.”—Melanie Archer, The Caribbean Review of Books

“A wryly intelligent examination of the ways that postcard and poster depictions of the Caribbean have influenced and been influenced by the island’s tourist economies.”—Nicholas Laughlin, Antilles, weblog of Caribbean Review of Books

“One of the first studies to critically interrogate the visual culture of the Caribbean through the lens of both popular art and fine art, it’s an important book that, no doubt, will continue to force the question of an distinct Caribbean art history, singular from a similarly contentious, African American chronicle, and impacted by the parallel histories of economic underdevelopment in the region and Western nostalgia for a present-day, accessible paradise.”—Richard J. Powell, Small Axe

“An Eye for the Tropics is a valuable contribution to Caribbean studies. In particular, it does an amiable job in alerting scholars to the problems inherent in regarding postcards and other photographic representations of the region as somehow truer, or more objective, than other historical documents.”—Carl Thompson, New West Indian Guide

“An Eye for the Tropics: Tourism, Photography and Framing the Caribbean Landscape, which concentrates on Jamaica and the Bahamas, teases out the issues at stake in promotional representations of the islands in the popular medium of photography (from postcards to slide presentations) and underscores the connections between the visual marketing of the islands and the politics of race. . . . An Eye for the Tropics reveals some essential reflections upon the image-making machinery of tourism.”—Melanie Vandenbrouck-Przybylski, Art History

Krista Thompson is the winner of the 2009 David C. Driskell Award, presented by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

“Although it frequently seems that the old adage holds true, and there are really no new ideas under the sun, only new writers (or something to that effect), An Eye for the Tropics reads as a maiden, thoroughly researched, and highly successful journey over previously unexplored territory.”—Melanie Archer, The Caribbean Review of Books

“A wryly intelligent examination of the ways that postcard and poster depictions of the Caribbean have influenced and been influenced by the island’s tourist economies.”—Nicholas Laughlin, Antilles, weblog of Caribbean Review of Books

“One of the first studies to critically interrogate the visual culture of the Caribbean through the lens of both popular art and fine art, it’s an important book that, no doubt, will continue to force the question of an distinct Caribbean art history, singular from a similarly contentious, African American chronicle, and impacted by the parallel histories of economic underdevelopment in the region and Western nostalgia for a present-day, accessible paradise.”—Richard J. Powell, Small Axe

“An Eye for the Tropics is a valuable contribution to Caribbean studies. In particular, it does an amiable job in alerting scholars to the problems inherent in regarding postcards and other photographic representations of the region as somehow truer, or more objective, than other historical documents.”—Carl Thompson, New West Indian Guide

“An Eye for the Tropics: Tourism, Photography and Framing the Caribbean Landscape, which concentrates on Jamaica and the Bahamas, teases out the issues at stake in promotional representations of the islands in the popular medium of photography (from postcards to slide presentations) and underscores the connections between the visual marketing of the islands and the politics of race. . . . An Eye for the Tropics reveals some essential reflections upon the image-making machinery of tourism.”—Melanie Vandenbrouck-Przybylski, Art History

“In An Eye for the Tropics, Krista A. Thompson’s guiding preoccupation is with the construction of the Anglo-Creole Caribbean within a colonial regime of visual and discursive representation. How, she asks, was the Caribbean framed within the ocular terms of a tropical paradise as a space of verdant, quasi-primitive desire? The story she tells to answer this question is at once historically detailed and theoretically acute.”—David Scott, author of Conscripts of Modernity: The Tragedy of Colonial Enlightenment

“Krista A. Thompson masterfully uses early-twentieth-century postcards to show how social, political, and racial issues are embedded in postcard imagery, while simultaneously analyzing current collecting practices. She makes substantial new and intriguing contributions to the understanding not simply of the historical tropicalization of the islands but of the persistence of such propagandistic attitudes in the economic survival of the islands today.”—Judith Bettelheim, Professor of Art and Art History, San Francisco State University

Permission to Photocopy (coursepacks)

If you are requesting permission to photocopy material for classroom use, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at copyright.com;

If the Copyright Clearance Center cannot grant permission, you may request permission from our Copyrights & Permissions Manager (use Contact Information listed below).

Permission to Reprint

If you are requesting permission to reprint DUP material (journal or book selection) in another book or in any other format, contact our Copyrights & Permissions Manager (use Contact Information listed below).

Images/Art

Many images/art used in material copyrighted by Duke University Press are controlled, not by the Press, but by the owner of the image. Please check the credit line adjacent to the illustration, as well as the front and back matter of the book for a list of credits. You must obtain permission directly from the owner of the image. Occasionally, Duke University Press controls the rights to maps or other drawings. Please direct permission requests for these images to permissions@dukeupress.edu.
For book covers to accompany reviews, please contact the publicity department.

Subsidiary Rights/Foreign Translations

If you're interested in a Duke University Press book for subsidiary rights/translations, please contact permissions@dukeupress.edu. Include the book title/author, rights sought, and estimated print run.

Disability Requests

Instructions for requesting an electronic text on behalf of a student with disabilities are available here.

Rights & Permissions Contact Information

Email: permissions@dukeupress.edu

Email contact for coursepacks: asstpermissions@dukeupress.edu

Fax: 919-688-4574

Mail:
Duke University Press
Rights and Permissions
905 W. Main Street
Suite 18B
Durham, NC 27701

For all requests please include:

1. Author's name. If book has an editor that is different from the article author, include editor's name also.

2. Title of the journal article or book chapter and title of journal or title of book

3. Page numbers (if excerpting, provide specifics)

For coursepacks, please also note: The number of copies requested, the school and professor requesting

For reprints and subsidiary rights, please also note: Your volume title, publication date, publisher, print run, page count, rights sought