This book explores how poverty is not merely a socio-economic condition but also a faultline in the Caribbean’s social imaginary, one that is constantly reconfigured through narrative literature. Drawing on Martha Nussbaum’s capability approach and Slavoj Žižek’s concept of the parallax, the author analyses works by Achy Obejas, Diana McCaulay, Kei Miller, Junot Díaz, Edwidge Danticat, and Mischa Berlinski to reveal how Caribbean writers challenge and reshape global narratives of poverty.

By examining the interplay of literary modes, thematic concerns, and textual ethics, this study uncovers how poverty narratives resist simplistic representations, asking readers to engage with the complexity and agency of those often marginalised in both fiction and society. Faultlines in the Imaginary argues that by bridging the gap between poverty research and literary analysis, fresh insights emerge into how literature can redefine how we understand poverty in a globalised world.

Georg Zipp is a literary scholar (Universities of Sussex and of Freiburg) specialising in social and cultural issues in English-language literature. Following a research position at the University of Freiburg and activities in the film and cultural sectors, he now serves as a linguistic expert at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation. Faultlines in the Imaginary is his follow-up to a co-authored book on figurations of poverty in British literature.