The Common Wind of the Afro-Caribbean Americas

Catalog description

How can the Caribbean explain the modern world? A study of Caribbean culture deepens our understanding of the dynamic between modernity and coloniality in our contemporary, neoimperial world. In this course we will focus on the non-Anglophone Antilles but also consider the culture of the Caribbean that transcends geographical definitions. Our shared theoretical language will build on the work of Anibal Quijano, Julius S. Scott, and a school of thought that centers Shakespeare's Caliban as a lens for understanding empire. Over the course of the three weeks, we will address major texts, thinkers, and historical events including Aimé Cesaire, José Martí, Frantz Fanon, Junot Diaz, Edwidge Danticat, Lin Manuel Miranda; a Caribbean-focused approach race, the Atlantic world, and revolution; and three wars (the Haitian Revolution, the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Cuban Revolution).<i>Students have the option of completing written work in Spanish. Those who wish to read selections in Spanish (when originally written in that language) are encouraged to do so.</i>