Caribbean Literatures And Cultures

Catalog description

This course, offered in English, will focus on the literature, culture, and arts of the Caribbean. Issues of colonialism and postcolonialism, slavery and freedom, exile and immigration, tensions between race and gender and between languages will be examined through poetry, novels, storytelling, theater, music, and film analysis. In this course, we will examine different Caribbean texts (literary, non-fiction and filmic) in order to learn how different writers and different types of texts respond to the colonialist context in which they were forged. Our work will consist of uncovering discourse, reading for intertextual dialogues and analyzing responses to dominant and colonialist ideology. Typically offered Fall Spring Summer. Course Learning Outcomes 1. Observe how the aspirations of other European nations fostered competition for colonial possessions in the Caribbean, the entry of the Caribbean into the Atlantic world economy, and the rise of plantations societies. 2. Investigate how various ethnic groups were brought to the Caribbean to fulfill demands for labor and how these same peoples have shaped the modern-day Caribbean as a result. 3. Define Francophone and Spanish literatures and set them apart from mainstream literature. 4. Make historical, ideological as well as political connections between Caribbean literatures. 5. Assess the contribution of slavery and colonization to the rise of the black subject. View Class Schedule