NATIONALISTIC MYOPIA 121

church's ministry by redirecting his ministry's funds to the Revival-
ists. The Reverend tells Sister Kate, "these poor people cannot sup-
port you and me; it must be one or the other, and for you to break up
my long years of labor here ... well..." (1.1). Only after Sister Kate re-
fuses to relocate does the Reverend ask her to leave the church, claim-
ing "that Christ is not pleased with what is going on" at her revivalist
meetings. Positioning the Reverend's eternal and spiritual concerns as
ancillary to the Reverend's own economic concerns tacitly critiques
the orthodox Christian middle class's motives for suppressing
pocomania.
 Even as the play's historical reflections partially explain why ortho-
dox Christian middle class members think they should bury pocomania,
the play situates the audience so it could seriously consider using
pocomania as a nation-building tool. Like Randolph S. Williams' "This
is Pocomania," published in The Jamaica Standard on May 9, 1938, the
play safely transports the audience across middle/lower class borders.
But each medium situates the audience/readers in different perspec-
tival positions. The Williams article positions readers as outsiders
observing an entertaining spectacle. Toward the end of the article,
Williams writes,

 Soon they will begin chanting slowly in a low voice, then gradually
 until fortissimo is reached. By that time the outer circle will be jumping
 their own heights and letting of sounds varying from the bray of an
 ass to the grunt and squeal of a pig ... [T]he grunts, the brays and
 sundry expressions in unknown languages make one great discord
 that simply reduces Babel to a peaceful little conference.

The article maintains the readers' disbelief of the spectacle and uses
the spectacle to justify and strengthen the border between the bestial
lower class and the civilized middle class. But the play functions quite
differently. Via Stella, the play begins to dismantle ideological bound-
aries between the lower and middle classes. Stella does not merely
observe pocomania events as a middle-class outsider; she interacts
with pocomania followers. Pocomania begins to mean for Stella and
the audience members what it means for the lower class: community,
healing, spirituality, life, and vitality.
 The rural setting facilitates the audience's belief in the staged, spirit-
filled pocomania. According to Edward Seaga's "Revival Cults in Ja-
maica: Notes Towards a Sociology of Religion," pocomania groups did