Dominican, Dominican-American, Haitian and Haitian-American writers and artists are put in dialogue with authors who were born in Europe, the rest of the Americas, Algeria, New Zealand, and Japan in order to illuminate some of the processes and histories that have woven and continue to weave the texture of the borderland and the complex web of border relations on the island. Particular attention is paid to the causes, unfolding, and immediate aftermath of the 1791 slave revolt, the 1937 massacre of Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans in the Dominican Northern borderland as well as to recent events and topical issues such as the 2010 earthquake, migration, and environmental degradation.
On the Edge is an invaluable multicultural archive for those who want to engage fully with the past and present of Hispaniola and refuse to comply with the idea that an acceptable future is unattainable.
Maria Cristina Fumagalli is Professor of Literature at the University of Essex. She is the author of 'Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze' (University of Virginia Press, 2009) and co-editor of 'Surveying the American Tropics: A Literary Geography from New York to Rio' (LUP, 2013).