Imagining the Tropics: Women, the Professionalization of Caribbean Tourism, and the Conjuring of Island Fantasy, 1890 - 1980

FAIN: HB-267485-20

Elizabeth S. Manley
Xavier University of Louisiana (New Orleans, LA 70125-1056)

Research and writing leading to a book on women’s role in the development of the Caribbean tourism industry during the 20th century.

I am applying for a 12-month award (full funding for summer 2020 and spring 2021 and three-fourths funding for fall 2020) to complete the final three chapters of a proposed book entitled Imagining the Tropics: Women, the Professionalization of Caribbean Tourism, and the Conjuring of Island Fantasy 1890 – 1980. The book addresses women’s roles in Caribbean tourism development across the twentieth century. The award will facilitate the second stage of the project, including completion of research (3 months) and writing (9 months). While often neglected in the historical narrative, my research reveals that women were crucial to the development of Caribbean tourism. Imagining the Tropics complicates a history that views modern tourism as a predominantly male-constructed fantasy, clarifies the mechanisms that built Caribbean visions of tropical escape, and frames a regional approach that highlights the incredible impact of women – Caribbean and otherwise – on this ever-expanding industry.

Associated Products

Constructing a Variegated Research Approach to 20th Century Transnational Caribbean and Women’s History,” Parts I- III (Blog Post)
Title: Constructing a Variegated Research Approach to 20th Century Transnational Caribbean and Women’s History,” Parts I- III
Author: Elizabeth S. Manley
Abstract: This three part series focuses on the challenges of beginning a second book project, building transnational research, and maintaining a research agenda during a pandemic.
Date: 04/01/2021
Primary URL: https://networks.h-net.org/node/23910/blog/research-corner/7525550/blog-constructing-variegated-research-approach-20th
Website: H-Net Research Corner

Elsie Clews Parsons: Scholarly Life “Just on the Edge of Adventure” (Blog Post)
Title: Elsie Clews Parsons: Scholarly Life “Just on the Edge of Adventure”
Author: Elizabeth S. Manley
Abstract: This post discusses anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons and her research on Caribbean folklore in the 1910s and 1920s.
Date: 03/03/2021
Primary URL: https://www.amphilsoc.org/blog/elsie-clews-parsons-scholarly-life-just-edge-adventure
Blog Title: American Philosophical Society Blog
Website: American Philosophical Society

“The State of the Field of Tourism in Latin America” (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: “The State of the Field of Tourism in Latin America”
Abstract: This was an interview with the editor of The Business of Leisure edited volume and two contributors (including myself) about the new book and the general state of tourism history.
Date: 03/09/2021
Primary URL: • “The State of the Field of Tourism in Latin America,” Historias Podcast, Southeast Conference of Latin American Studies, March 9, 2021; https://soundcloud.com/historiaspod/historias-126-state-of-the-field-tourism
Primary URL Description: Historias Podcast, Southeast Conference of Latin American Studies
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Web

The Business of Leisure: Tourism History in Latin America and the Caribbean” (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: The Business of Leisure: Tourism History in Latin America and the Caribbean”
Abstract: This was an interview with the editor of The Business of Leisure edited volume and two contributors (including myself) about the new book and the general state of tourism history.
Date: 01/27/2021
Primary URL: https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-business-of-leisure
Primary URL Description: New Books Network: New Books in Caribbean Studies
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Web

“Las bellezas naturales del Caribe: Tourism, Race, and Pageant Queens” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Las bellezas naturales del Caribe: Tourism, Race, and Pageant Queens”
Author: Elizabeth S. Manley
Abstract: This paper addressed the prevalence of beauty pageants and pageant queens in the promotion of Caribbean tourism across the region in the second half of the twentieth century.
Date: 05/15/2021
Conference Name: Latin American Studies Association

“Las bellezas naturales del Caribe: Balaguer, Tourism, and the Dominican Pageant Queen” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Las bellezas naturales del Caribe: Balaguer, Tourism, and the Dominican Pageant Queen”
Author: Elizabeth S. Manley
Abstract: This paper addressed the growing use of beauty pageants and pageant queens in the promotion of Dominican tourism across the second half of the twentieth century.
Date: 12/05/2020
Conference Name: Dominican Studies Association Conference

“’A charming retreat for jaded nerves:’ Women Travelers, Imperial Cures, and the British Caribbean” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “’A charming retreat for jaded nerves:’ Women Travelers, Imperial Cures, and the British Caribbean”
Author: Elizabeth S. Manley
Abstract: This paper, drawn from the first chapter of my book, looks at the ways women, in the last decade of the twentieth century, began describing the Caribbean as a physical and spiritual place of recovery and rejuvenation for ill, worn-out, or exhausted Global North travelers.
Date: 03/20/2021
Conference Name: Rocky Mountain Council of Latin American Studies

Runway Hospitality: Air Jamaica’s “Rare Tropical Birds” and the Embodied Gender and Race Politics of Tourism (1966-1980) (Article)
Title: Runway Hospitality: Air Jamaica’s “Rare Tropical Birds” and the Embodied Gender and Race Politics of Tourism (1966-1980)
Author: Elizabeth Manley
Abstract: Launched in 1966, Jamaica's national airline, Air Jamaica, exclusively employed women flight attendants, dubbed “rare tropical birds,” to embody and sell its elevated hospitality. Using Air Jamaica and its flight attendants as a lens on tourism across the region, this article demonstrates how, at midcentury, the industry was a complicated and contradictory mix of optimistic visions of advancement and problematic projections of creolized citizenship, all embedded in an imagery of a consumable Caribbean island paradise. The article interrogates the critical role that Air Jamaica's flight attendants and other women played in selling a harmonious Jamaicanness and idealized island fantasy to global North travelers, particularly in contrast to the larger national project of democratic socialist reform under Michael Manley. Despite efforts to put the tourism industry back into Jamaican hands, the act of trading on a romanticized racial hybridity and gendered, exoticized servility is inextricable from the story of tourism development in Jamaica and the region and points to the many contradictions entrenched (and persistent) in the industry.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-9653504
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Hispanic American Historical Review
Publisher: Duke University Press

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