Calypso and the Performance of Representational Politics

AbstractThis chapter focuses on the intersection of representation in calypso performance, representation in calypso research, and representation in parliament. The chapter highlights the ways in which a particular discourse of citizenship shapes the ways in which calypso is thought about and how the democratic project in the English‐speaking Caribbean is imagined through calypso performance. The argument focuses on the productive nature of calypso research. It is contended that much of this research, though vitally important to identifying the significance of calypso within the region, has, nevertheless, tended to reinscribe a rather limited view of citizenship. The chapter makes a case for reimagining calypso's political significance by suggesting ways to reinvigorate the creative practices of calypso research.