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Post Independence urban Jamaica seemed to be an exciting place to fall in love. The optimism and sense of self-determination was soundtracked by Lovers Rock, with images of couples in intimate embraces swaying together on a single tile in the dancehall. But as the city changed in response to the realities of structural adjustment policies, so did we.
Urban art and popular culture reflected our shifting urban environments. Land Use and transportation codified social stratification and reinforced our isolation to the extent that “geographies of class segregation became a cultural distinction” (Stanigar 2008). Inspired by romantic urbanism, Dorraine Duncan and Jhordan Channer, we explore how space and infrastructure across Jamaica influence romantic relationships as depicted in film, music, and TV.
In the preface to Keith Warner’s 2000 book On Location: Cinema and Film in the Anglophone Caribbean, Alistair Hennessy notes how Hollywood dominates the images we see and questions how local cultural identities can be nurtured “in an age of accelerating technologies when viewers are bombarded by a bewildering array of images and ideas of foreign provenance which perpetuate stereotypes…conditioned by the commercial demands of the box-office?”
This is an important provocation. Western cultural hegemony structures how the Caribbean is perceived and simultaneously influences our behaviors and norms, from our cultural practices to our choice of romantic partners. Hollywood romance films offer a useful indication of mainstream attitudes and when these productions hover around the Caribbean, they create an approximation of reality rooted in stereotypical representations... Read more
This article is published in collaboration with Romantic Urbanism, read the full article at their journal.
