ABSTRACT
A critical treatment of the rise of the Atlantic World suggests that the dislocations commonly perceived as part of modern black life are in fact rooted in the premodern period and are historically linked to the dislocations that first attended the creation of the Atlantic World. In this chapter, I argue for the centrality of the Atlantic as an organizing principle in the construction of contemporary black identities. In addition to analyzing moments of historical significance, I focus on examples from contemporary black literature-especially the work of Caryl Phillips-to illustrate the persistent importance of the Atlantic in the formation of black life.
