The Dying Swan: Cultural Nationalism and Queer Formations in Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

This essay examines the configuration of cultural nationalism in the Commonwealth Caribbean, specifically Trinidad and Tobago, and the impact of queer formations on national identity. Cultural nationalism in the Caribbean has been characterized by its heteropatriarchal disposition–rendering sexual minorities as abject citizens. However, the hybridized culture of the Caribbean, as demonstrated through the cultural arts of Trinidad and Tobago, provides an unfixed, paradoxical social location in which queer cultural performances transgress the colonial-influenced cultural nationalism. As such, this essay deploys queer theory of colour in a discursive and performative analysis of a contemporary Trinidad Carnival mas or masquerade, The Dying Swan: Ras Nijinsky in Drag as Pavlova (2016). With this performance, a more inclusive national identity is envisioned through a queer world-making that challenges prevailing cultural norms and subvert traditional sexual identity politics.