Keith Sandiford's study examines the importance of sugar as a central metaphor in the work of six influential authors of the colonial West Indies. Sugar, he argues, became a focus for cultural desires as well as a hard fact of the Caribbean's political economy. Sandiford defines this metaphorical turn as a trope of ''negotiation'' that organizes the structure and content of the narratives. Based on extensive historical knowledge of the period and recent postcolonial theory, this book suggests the possibilities negotiation offers in the continuing recovery of West Indian intellectual history.