04:00P-05:15P TR (28) 3 cr.
THIS SECTION OF L383 IS JOINTLY OFFERED WITH AMERICAN STUDIES G620.
TOPIC: THE LITERATURES AND CULTURES OF THE ANGLOPHONE CARIBBEAN.
This course will provide an introduction to the work of Caribbean artists and intellectuals writing in English. Our focus will be on cultural production in the twentieth century, though attention will be paid to the historical evolution of the Caribbean as a region since Columbus’s arrival on the shores of what he mistakenly thought was India. We will think about the impact of colonialism on the destruction of native peoples, as well as about the effect of the transatlantic slave trade and the system of indentured labor which brought Asian and South Asian laborers to the Caribbean on the creation of cross-cultural communities in the region. Through novels, short stories and poems, as well as forms of popular culture such as dub poetry, calypso and reggae, we will explore varieties of resistance to imperialism. How did writers and artists from this region contest British domination in both the cultural and political spheres? How have the islands of the region articulated their relationship, not only to the imperial metropolis, but to one another? What is the relationship between gender and nationalism? Between exile and home?
Authors may include Louise Bennett, Kamau Brathwaite, Jean Binta Breeze, Wilson Harris, Merle Hodge, C.L.R. James, Jamaica Kincaid, George Lamming, Roger Mais, Bob Marley, The Mighty Sparrow, V.S. Naipaul, Patricia Powell, Jean Rhys, Sam Selvon, Mikey Smith and Derek Walcott.
Assignments will include a group presentation, two papers (one short and one long), a midterm and a final exam. In addition, active participation in class discussions constitutes part of your grade for the course.