Comparative Literature 397F - ST-Caribbean Lit:Roots/Routes

With the arrival of the Europeans, most of the native population of the Caribbean was decimated. Since then, the islands have been repopulated with Europeans, Africans, Asians, and Middle Easterners, among others. In this class, we will read literary representations of the routes these people took to the Caribbean, their efforts to root themselves in the new land as well as forge a new identity, and the subsequent routes some have taken as they migrate again, often for political reasons. We will look at the Caribbean as a center of flux, movement, and hybridity, and thus a microcosm of the globalization that marks the modern world. Readings will include fiction and poetry from the last two centuries as well as secondary texts theorizing Caribbean space and identity. Texts may include works by Jamaica Kincaid, Alejo Carpentier, Derek Walcott, Edwidge Danticat, Jose Marti, V.S. Naipaul, and Patrick Chamoiseau, as well as folk literature and slave songs.