Introduction : "A broken plate ..." : Caribbean genesis, alterbiography, and the writing of new worlds -- "Darkness was over the surface of the deep" : alterrains of "blackness" in At the bottom of the river (1983) -- "In the night" : jablesse, obeah, and Caribbean cosmogonies in At the bottom of the river (1983) -- "Rooting for the Devil : the diabolic as diasporic in Annie John (1985) and Lucy (1990) -- Damning history : genre, genealogy, and genocide in The autobiography of my mother (1996) -- Fallen angels: death and the biographical Autograph in my brother (1997) -- "Another line was born ..." : genre, genealogy and genesis in Mr. Potter (2002).