Liverpool University Press Locating Guyane (Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures): 53

Overseas department of France in Amazonia and `ultraperipheral region' of the EU, Guyane (French Guiana) is at the juncture of Europe, the Caribbean and South Ameri-ca. This collection of essays explores historical and conceptual locations of Guyane, as a relational space characterised by dynamics of interaction and conflict between the lo-cal, the national and the global. Does Guyane have, or has it had, its own place in the world, or is it a borderland which can only make sense in relation to elsewhere: to France and its colonial history, for example, or to African and other diasporas, or as a `margin' of Europe?This edited collection will be the first volume to study Guyane from multiple perspec-tives. It subjects the enduring cliches and negative stereotypes regarding Guyane to critical examination. It addresses how and why discourse on the DOM has come to be characterised by paradoxes and lacunae, and suggests ways in which this can be re-dressed. Chapters explore geographical, literary and cultural `locations' of Guyane, past and present. They challenge its relegation to the `periphery', whilst also historicising the production of its marginal status. Finally, the collection aims to outline possible future challenges to the conceptual location of Guyane and possible directions for research.