ABSTRACT
A problem with many postmodern cultural theories is that they limit their perspective to the understanding of societies as holistic entities. These concepts often appear to be technical, nearly inhuman. But when we look at specific cultures such as the cultura criolla in the Caribbean all human senses are involved. One can see, touch, smell, hear and taste the Caribbean; it is a Caribbean of senses, emotions and sentiments (see Benítez Rojo 1989: xiii). Edouard Glissant talks about the human imagination, the ‘praxis of poesy’ as Sabine Hofmann calls it. For Glissant the human imagination is like a ‘black box’ that one cannot reduce to some strategies because the human imagination can always break these structures (Hofmann 1994: 264). Nonetheless, looking at the theories presented in Chapter 4, the question referring to the creative moment in cultural transformation remains unsolved.
