ENGL 278 - Literatures and Cultures of the Caribbean

This course will focus primarily on the writing but also on the music and film of the Caribbean. It will examine the works of authors such as Derek Walcott, V.S. Naipaul, Jamaica Kincaid, Merle Hodge, George Lamming, Edwidge Danticat, Frances Aparicio, Rosario Ferre, Mayra Santos-Febre, Ana Lydia Vega, Reynaldo Arenas, Deborah Pacini Hernandez, Maryse Conde, Lyonel Trouillot, Rene Depestre, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Aima Cesaire. It will also examine the works of musicians and performers such as Attila the Hun, Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Boukman Eksperians, Manno Charlemagne, and Haitiando. The course will cover multiple musical genres - among them, calypso, ska, reggae, compa, music rasin, and troubadou. The course material may also include Caribbean films, such as The Harder They Fall, “Life and Debt, and Haiti: Killing the Dream. Finally, the course will include extensive readings in literary and postcolonial theory, situating the literature, music, and film within specific historical, political, regional, ethnic, linguistic, national, and postcolonial contexts. Theorists will be chosen from among Paul Gilroy, Antonio Benitez-Rojo, Kamau Brathwaite, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Michael Dash, Paul Farmer, Mimi Sheller, Joan Dayan, Laennec Hurbon, Edouard Glissant, Francoise Lionnet, and others. The course may focus on Anglophone, Francophone, and/or Hispanophone texts and be team-taught by faculty from English, French and Francophone studies, and/or Hispanic and Latin American studies departments. Alternate years. (4 Credits)