Living and Imagining in Paradise: The Culture of a Tourist Economy

After establishing the neocolonial relations of tourism and the various forms of resistance alternative models as represented in Caribbean literature, chapter four offers a case study of a tourist economy by analyzing the production of culture and tourism in the Bahamas (one of the most tourism-dependent countries in the region). It engages how Caribbean writers and cultural workers in local spaces work to resist the power of tourism and myth of paradise. This chapter combines an analysis of selected literary works by Marion Bethel and artistic works by Dionne Benjamin-Smith, the national festival Junkanoo, interviews conducted with workers in tourism and culture. Bahamian artists and cultural workers, including workers in the tourist and culture industries and artists, acknowledge the powerful role of tourism in shaping identity and national culture, but they have different strategies of negotiating tourism depending on their relationship to the tourist industry.