Jamaica: History, Culture, and People ((4 Credits))

Catalog description

This is an interdisciplinary undergraduate seminar, which seeks to provide students with an introduction into Jamaica's socio-political history. This seminar will examine a selection of materials drawn from literary texts, films and music, alongside historical and sociological accounts, in an effort to comprehend the socio-political energies and tension underpinning the construction of the Jamaican identity and experience from the point of colonial contact to the through to the present. The course is organized thematically but it proceeds in chronological order to focus on the major socio-political, economic and cultural period of change in the Jamaican society and the wider Caribbean region. The larger conceptualized issues which this seminar will address include different forms of colonialism and the ways in which contemporary identities have responded to such historical constructs. It will be particularly concerned with examining the complex web of relationships between creativity and cultural production and showing how literature and music for example can provide alternative perspectives on matters such as history, race, culture and national identity.