" Glissant and the Middle Passage is an ingeniously cast light on Glissant's remarkable philosophical proposition to the world from the Caribbean geography of reason. It critically shows how the singularity of a Caribbean mode of thought strikingly disrupts admitted stances on crucial philosophical precepts to fruitfully expand and broaden the realm of a philosophy that ordinarily centered its concerns and frames of reference around an established European worldview."--Hanétha Vété-Congolo, Bowdoin College " Glissant and the Middle Passage is the single most comprehensive and compelling treatment to date of the philosophical dimension of Édouard Glissant's non-fiction. John E. Drabinski maps Glissant's geography of reason in the mode of a postcolonial 'intensification of qualities,' summoning a philosophy of post-traumatic relationality that tracks the philosophical valences and aftershocks of the Middle Passage. Essential reading."--Nick Nesbitt, Princeton University "Creolization as impossibility of subjectivity retrieval invites reconceiving the models inherited and steers toward the future. A must-read for anyone interested in modern theories of the Caribbeans.
"-- CHOICE "Drabinski has composed a work of exceptional depth that is yet fathomable, in remarkably beautiful prose, given the severity of the subject matter. The work is nuanced and detailed, and provides several avenues forward in the continuation of his expedition into the complex waters of the Middle Passage."-- Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "An essential reference for any- one keen on bolstering an understanding of Glissant's archipelagic philosophy."-- New West Indian Guide "Drabinski's Glissant and the Middle Passage: Philosophy, Beginning, Abyss stands as one of the most innovative and meaningful studies lately published on Glissant. In this book, the author develops further a philosophical analysis first appearing in the anthology he co-edited, Theorizing Glissant: Sites and Citations (2015). "-- ALH Online Review "In Drabinski's reading, the semiotic functioning of traces captures the fundamentally digenetic nature of Glissant's Relation."-- Cultural Critique "A beautiful, compelling account not merely of Glissant's philosophy, or of Glissant as a philosopher, but particularly, of how his thought intervenes in philosophical thinking when the latter is challenged by the concrete, Caribbean demands of memory, history, and identity related to the Middle Passage."-- Philosophy Today.