Fall 2007

E 379S • Caribbean Literature (Senior Seminar)

Course Description

Through a survey of texts from English-, French-, and Spanish-speaking islands, this course seeks to address the complexity of "the Caribbean" as a geographic construct, that is, the chain of islands stretching from North to South America, and as an imagined site, that is, the tropical destination marketed to North American and European tourists.  To do so we will supplement our reading of literary texts from the region with the examination of travel-related texts about the region.  Throughout the semester we will consider how the dynamics of slavery and colonialism differed from island to island and explore the multiple manifestations of postcolonial life that have emerged across the archipelago since the 1960s.  The course will conclude with an examination of the migration of Caribbean authors and texts to the United States and of the resulting development of hyphenated Caribbean-American identities.  All texts will be read in English, and the list of proposed texts is subject to change. 

Grading Policy

Attendance and participation 10%
Reading journal 15%
Term paper proposal (4-5 pages) 15%
Presentation 20%
Final term paper (12-15 pages) 40%

Texts

Patrick Chamoiseau, Solibo Magnificent
Maryse Condé, Crossing the Mangrove
Hilma Contreras, Between Two Silences
Cristina García, Monkey Hunting
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
Derek Walcott, "The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory," What the Twilight Says
Course reader

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