Inna di Dancehall Book Report Book written by Donna P. Hope.

This book report is based upon the book Inna di Dancehall: Popular Culture and the Politics of Identity in Jamaica written by Donna P. Hope. It is based on the authors MPhil thesis presented at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. The book is published by the University of the West Indies Press and copyrighted 2006 by Donna P. Hope. Introduction of the author The book Inna di Dancehall was written by author Dr. Donna P. Hope. She is presently a lecturer in Reggae Studies in the Institute of Caribbean Studies, at the University of the West Indies, Mona, and former host of the daytime radio talk show, Disclosure on Hot 102 FM. Dr. Hope continues to engage in ongoing teaching and research on Jamaican music and popular music culture. Her areas of research interest include Jamaican music and dancehall culture, youth development, black masculinities, black popular culture, gender, identity, and power. The work investigates some of the primary symbols of gender, sexuality and violence which originate from the Jamaican dancehall culture. Since the book is based on anthropological research, my approach upon reading the text was one with an analytical mindset. The book takes a holistic approach in describing all aspects of Jamaican society describing the class structure, gender roles, and values of the society. From the authors references as well as the publishing date of the book, Inna di Dancehall deals with dancehall in the past couple of years. Though it may not deal with dancehall culture of the most

recent past, the themes discussed in the text still bear relevance to some of the music that emanates from Jamaica today. The writers aim for this book was to alleviate the scarcity of accessible work on Jamaican popular culture and generally dancehall culture specifically by exploring and analyzing some of the primary symbols and narratives of gender, sexuality and violence which originate from within the dancehall. It argues that throughout the culture these symbols play a significant role in the negotiation and contestation for public space through the dancehalls re-presentation of identities that play with and against Jamaicas hegemonic structures. The author accomplished her aim by making each point clear and straight to the point. She was able to elaborately explain each section of her study and further demonstrating these points by making relevant examples. I was generally impressed with the structure of the book and the comprehensive information given in the text. However there were some parts of the book that involved too much repetition of phrases that took away from my interest in reading the book at some points. There were also ambiguous generalizations that were also repeated in the text many times which lead me as the reader to question what the writer was referring to. I was able to relate the some content of the course (FOUN1101) to the culture of the Jamaican people.

Review of the book.

I found the book to be quite interesting and informative. Informative pointsThe history/background of dancehall The generators of dancehall and their role in society, the messages they conveyed to the people, the content of the music and level of influence. The politics of identity. Interesting pointsThe language, the ability to compare and contrast the language (Creole) of Jamaica to my own showed the extent to which it was influential not only in their country by across the Caribbean. The explicit sexual and violent expression in the dancehall. A cause for concern with the importance of skin color. Jamaicans bleaching their skin but still hold black pride with their dancehall music. As in Carlene vs. Lady Saw