Caribbean literature
Caribbean literature is the
The literature of Caribbean is exceptional, both in language and subject. Through themes of innocence, exile and return to motherland, resistance and endurance, engagement and alienation, self determination, Caribbean literature provides a powerful platform for
"Caribbean literature" vs. "West Indian literature"
As scholarship expands, there is debate about the correct term to use for literature that comes from the region. Both terms are often used interchangeably despite having different origins and referring to slightly different groups of people. Since so much of Caribbean identity is linked to "insidious racism" and "the justification of slave labor", it is usual to refer to the author of the piece for their identity preference.[2]
West Indian is defined as coming from the "West Indies", which includes "the islands of the Caribbean" and was "used first [for] indigenous population, and subsequently both [for] settlers of European origin and of people of African origin brought to the area as slaves." West Indian can also refer to things that can be "traced back" to the West Indies but the creators "live elsewhere".[3] West Indian "was a term coined by colonising European powers."[4] Caribbean, on the other hand, is defined as "of the Caribbean...its people, and their cultures" only.[5]
Further issues include language classifications like Creole Caribbean literature and Anglophone Caribbean literature. Different languages also make different references to the texts. While there is no terminology that is obsolete, the issue requires acknowledgement, since it is the literature of historically oppressed people.[2] The Spanish Caribbean islands include Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Panama as well as the islands of Venezuela and the Caribbean coast of Colombia.[6]
Territories included in the category West Indian
The literature of
Development of the concept of West Indian literature
The term "West Indies" first began to achieve wide currency in the 1950s, when writers such as
Many—perhaps most—West Indian writers have found it necessary to leave their home territories and base themselves in the United Kingdom, the United States, or Canada in order to make a living from their work—in some cases spending the greater parts of their careers away from the territories of their birth. Critics in their adopted territories might argue that, for instance, V. S. Naipaul ought to be considered a British writer instead of a Trinidadian writer, or Jamaica Kincaid and Paule Marshall American writers, but most West Indian readers and critics still consider these writers "West Indian".
West Indian literature ranges over subjects and themes as wide as those of any other "national" literature, but in general many West Indian writers share a special concern with questions of identity, ethnicity, and language that rise out of the Caribbean historical experience.
One unique and pervasive characteristic of Caribbean literature is the use of "
Other notable names in (anglophone) Caribbean literature have included
Themes of migration, landscape, nature
Caribbean lands and seas have been depicted as a paradise on earth by foreign artists and writers.
Caribbean novelists imbue island landscape with bustling life of the locals and migrants. The migration of Caribbean workers to the Panama Canal is often used as a narrative foundation. Maryse Condé’s novel Tree of Life (1992) discusses the involvement of family ties and how people seek to improve their lot in life by working to build the Panama Canal.[15] Another contemporary classic about migrant cultures is Ramabai Espinet’s novel The Swinging Bridge (2003), which explores trauma of displacement, Indian indentureship, and the phenomena of invisibility relating to women.[16]
Caribbean stories and poems are ripe with references to storms, hurricanes, and natural disasters.[17] Derek Walcott's wrote "The Sea is History," and dramatized the impact of tropical storms and hurricanes on the locals.[18]
Caribbean writing deploys agricultural symbolism to represent the complexities of colonial rule and the intrinsic values of the lands. Native fruits and vegetables appear in colonized and decolonizing discourse.
Poetry
Caribbean poetry generally refers to a myriad of poetic forms, spanning
Since the mid-1970s, Caribbean poetry has gained increasing visibility with the publication in Britain and North America of several anthologies. Over the decades the canon has shifted and expanded, drawing both on oral and literary traditions and including more women poets and politically charged works. Caribbean writers, performance poets, newspaper poets, singer-songwriters have created a popular art form, a poetry heard by audiences all over the world. Caribbean oral poetry shares the vigour of the written tradition.
Among the most prominent Caribbean poets whose works are widely studied (and translated into other languages) are:
Common themes include: exile and return to the motherland; the relationship of language to nation; colonialism and postcolonialism; self-determination and liberty; racial identity.
Women writers
There is great abundance of talent, styles, and subjects covered by Caribbean women writers spanning the genres of poetry, theater, short stories, essays, and novels. There is also a burgeoning field of scholarship on how women authors address women's lives under dictatorships, eroticism and the body, history and identity, migration, Afro Caribbean history, decolonization, revolution, queer theory, among countless other topics.
Major novelists include Maryse Conde (Guadeloupe), Merle Hodge (Trinidad), Paule Marshall (Barbadian-American), Cynthia McLeod (Suriname), Elizabeth Nunez (Trinidad-American ), Tiphanie Yanique (Virgin Islands), Rosario Ferre (Puerto Rico), and Michelle Cliff (Jamaica).
Poets include Mahadai Das (Guyana), Lenelle Moïse (Haiti), Pamela Mordecai (Jamaica), Lorna Goodison (Jamaica), Julia de Burgos (Puerto Rico), Giannina Braschi (Puerto Rico), Merle Collins (Grenada), Shara McCallum (Jamaica), and Oliver Senior (Jamaica).
Playwrights include Una Marson who wrote in English, and Ina Césaire (Martinique) and Simone Schwarz-Bart (France/Guadeloupe) who write in French.[22]
Epics
There are many epic stories, plays, and poems written in and about the Caribbean. Dating to the 16th century, Juan de Castellanos's Elegy to the Illustrious Gentlemen of the Indies (1589) is an epic in verse that traces Columbus's arrival to the conquest of Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Margarita.[23] The work relates Juan Ponce de León's colonization of Puerto Rico in search for the mythic fountain of youth.[23] Later epics of the Spanish West Indies include Manuel de Jesus Galvan's national epic "The Sword and the Cross" (1954) that relates the myths and histories of the colony of Hispaniola.[23]
In the 20th century, epics approach subjects such
Literary festivals
Many parts of the Caribbean have begun in recent years to host literary festivals, including in Anguilla, the Anguilla Lit Fest, in Trinidad and Tobago the NGC Bocas Lit Fest,[36] in Jamaica the Calabash International Literary Festival,[37] in Saint Martin/Sint Maarten the St. Martin Book Fair,[38] in Barbados Bim Literary Festival,[39] in Dominica the Nature Island Literary Festival and Book Fair,[40] Alliouagana Festival of the word[41] in Montserrat, and the Antigua and Barbuda Literary Festival.[42] The Virgin Islands Literary Festival and Book Fair
Prizes
- Casa de las Américas Prize
- OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature[43]
- Grand Prize for Caribbean Literature, Association of Caribbean Writers (Guadeloupe)[44]
Notable West Indian writers
(Grouped by territory of birth or upbringing)
Antigua
The Bahamas
- Robert Antoni
- Marion Bethel
- [Ian Strachan]
- [Patricia Glinton Meicholas]
- [Robert Johnson]
- [Obediah Michael Smith]
Barbados
- Kamau Brathwaite
- Austin Clarke
- Frank Collymore
- Geoffrey Drayton
- Anthony Kellman
- George Lamming
- Karen Lord
- Paule Marshall
- Andrea Stuart
- Cynthia Wilson
Belize
Bonaire
Cuba
- Antonio Benitez-Rojo
- Guillermo Cabrera Infante
- Alejo Carpentier
- Roberto Fernández Retamar
- Nicolás Guillén
- Jorge Enrique González Pacheco
- José Lezama Lima
- Dulce María Loynaz
- José Martí
- Carlos Moore (writer)
- Nancy Morejon
- Leonardo Padura Fuentes
- Virgilio Piñera
- Emilio Jorge Rodríguez
- Guillermo Rosales
- Severo Sarduy
Curaçao
Dominica
Dominican Republic
- Julio Vega Battle
- Raquel Cepeda
- Junot Diaz
- Julia Alvarez
- Blas Jiménez
Grenada
- Jacob Ross[45]
- Tobias S. Buckell
- Merle Collins
- Gus John
Guadeloupe
Guyana
- John Agard
- Gaiutra Bahadur
- E. R. Braithwaite
- Jan Carew
- Martin Carter
- Cyril Dabydeen
- David Dabydeen
- Fred D'Aguiar
- O. R. Dathorne
- Beryl Gilroy
- Wilson Harris
- Roy A. K. Heath
- Ruel Johnson
- Oonya Kempadoo
- Peter Kempadoo
- Sharon Maas
- Yolanda T. Marshall
- Mark McWatt
- Pauline Melville
- Edgar Mittelholzer
- Grace Nichols
- Walter Rodney
- Gordon Rohlehr
- A. J. Seymour
- Jan Shinebourne
- Eric Walrond
- Denis Williams
Haiti
- Edwidge Danticat
- René Depestre
- Marie Vieux-Chauvet
- Myriam J. A. Chancy
- Dany Laferrière
- Dimitry Elias Léger
- Jacques Roumain
- Emeric Bergeaud
- Frankétienne
- Beaubrun Ardouin
- Emile Nau
- Ignace Nau
- Lyonel Trouillot
- René Philoctète
- Marie-Célie Agnant
Jamaica
- Louise Bennett-Coverley
- James Berry
- Erna Brodber
- Margaret Cezair-Thompson
- Colin Channer
- Michelle Cliff
- Kwame Dawes
- Jean D'Costa
- Herbert de Lisser
- Ferdinand Dennis
- Marcia Douglas
- Gloria Escoffery
- John Figueroa
- Honor Ford-Smith
- Lorna Goodison
- Richard Hart
- John Hearne
- Vjange Hazle
- A. L. Hendriks
- Nalo Hopkinson
- Marlon James
- Linton Kwesi Johnson
- Roger Mais
- Una Marson
- Claude McKay
- Alecia McKenzie
- Anthony McNeill
- Mervyn Morris
- Mutabaruka
- Rex Nettleford
- Orlando Patterson
- Geoffrey Philp
- Velma Pollard
- Patricia Powell
- Claudia Rankine
- Barry Reckord
- V. S. Reid
- Joan Riley
- Trevor Rhone
- Leone Ross
- Andrew Salkey
- Dennis Scott
- Olive Senior
- M. G. Smith
- Mikey Smith
- Anthony C. Winkler
- Sylvia Wynter
Martinique
- Marie-Magdeleine Carbet
- Aimé Césaire
- Patrick Chamoiseau
- Frantz Fanon
- Edouard Glissant
- Raphaël Confiant
Montserrat
Puerto Rico
- Giannina Braschi
- Lola Rodríguez de Tió
- Rosario Ferré
- Juan Carlos Quintero Herencia
- Eugenio María de Hostos
- Luis Palés Matos
- Julia de Burgos
- Aurora Levins Morales
- Manuel Ramos Otero
- Luis Rafael Sánchez
- Esmeralda Santiago
- Mayra Santos-Febres
- Ana Lydia Vega
- José Luis Vega
- Francisco Arrivi
- René Marqués
St Kitts and Nevis
St Lucia
Saint Martin
St Vincent and The Grenadines
Suriname
- Clark Accord
- Albert Helman
- Cynthia McLeod
- Ismene Krishnadath
Trinidad and Tobago
- James Christopher Aboud
- Lisa Allen-Agostini
- Lauren K. Alleyne
- Michael Anthony
- Robert Antoni
- Kevin Baldeosingh
- Dionne Brand
- Lennox Brown
- Wayne Brown
- Vahni Capildeo
- Ralph de Boissière
- Ramabai Espinet
- Albert Gomes
- Cecil Gray
- Rosa Guy
- Errol Hill
- Merle Hodge
- C. L. R. James
- Anthony Joseph
- Roi Kwabena
- Harold "Sonny" Ladoo
- John La Rose
- Earl Lovelace
- John Lyons
- Rabindranath Maharaj
- Ian McDonald
- Alfred Mendes
- Shani Mootoo
- Shiva Naipaul
- V. S. Naipaul
- Elizabeth Nunez
- Lakshmi Persaud
- M. NourbeSe Philip
- Jennifer Rahim
- Kenneth Ramchand
- Roger Robinson
- Monique Roffey
- Lawrence Scott
- Samuel Selvon
- Frances-Anne Solomon
- Eintou Pearl Springer
- Kenneth Vidia Parmasad
- Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw
- Eric Williams
Virgin Islands
West Indian literary periodicals
- The Beacon (Trinidad)
- Bim (Barbados)
- DIALOGUE (Trinidad)
- The Caribbean Writer(U. S. Virgin Islands)
- Focus (Jamaica)
- Kyk-Over-Al (Guyana)
- The Caribbean Review of Books (Trinidad)
- Savacou (journal of the Caribbean Artists Movement (London, UK)
- Moko - Caribbean Arts and Letters (Virgin Islands)
- Interviewing the Caribbean - letters and the visual arts (Jamaica)
Further reading
- Donnell, Alison, ed. (December 2020). Caribbean Literature in Transition Series. Cambridge University Press.
- O'Callaghan, Evelyn; Watson, Tim, eds. (December 2020). Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1800-1920. Vol. 1. S2CID 234149639.
- Dalleo, Raphael; Forbes, Curdella, eds. (December 2020). Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1920-1970. Vol. 2. S2CID 237977548.
- Cummings, Ronald; Donnell, Alison, eds. (December 2020). Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1970-2020. Vol. 3. S2CID 243659819.
- O'Callaghan, Evelyn; Watson, Tim, eds. (December 2020). Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1800-1920. Vol. 1.
- Brown, Stewart; Wickham, John, eds. (21 March 2002). The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192802293.
- Brown, Stewart; McWatt, Mark, eds. (7 May 2009). The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199561599.
- Figueredo, D.H., ed. (30 December 2005). Encyclopedia of Caribbean Literature[2 volumes], Illustrated Edition. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313327421.
- Joseph, Margaret Paul. Caliban in Exile: the Outsider in Caribbean Fiction, Greenwood Press, 1992.
See also
- American poetry
- Caribbean poetry
- Creole languages
- Cuban literature
- Dub poetry
- Haitian literature
- Postcolonial Literature
- Postcolonial Studies
References
- ^ Dash, J. Michael (1998). The Other America: Caribbean Literature in a New World Context. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
- ^ S2CID 154757755.
- ^ "West Indian." Oxford English Dictionary, 2018, Oxford University Press.
- ^ Begg, Yusuf (13 November 2011). "Cocktail Conversations: West Indian Vs Caribbean". The Economic Times.
- ^ "Caribbean." Oxford English Dictionary, 2018, Oxford University Press.
- ^ "CARIBBEAN ISLANDS :. www.caribbeanislands.com". www.caribbeanislands.com. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- ^ Ramchand, Kenneth. The West Indian Novel and Its Background. London: Faber, 1970.
- S2CID 146195981.
- JSTOR j.ctt6wrnqm.
- ^ Waters, Erika J. (2009). "Paradise Revealed: Readings in Caribbean Literature". Maine Humanities Council. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
- ^ JSTOR 23019970.
- ^ "The Emptying Island: Puerto Rican Expulsion in Post-Maria Time". hemisphericinstitute.org. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- JSTOR j.ctt6wrk9x.
- ^ "caribbean landscape in literature - Google Search". www.google.com. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- ^ Garcia, Cristina. "'The 'Rich Cadence' of Carribean [sic] Life as Conveyed by Novelist". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
Tree of Life is also a grand account of the Caribbean, the politics of race and immigration, and the intricate, often sordid legacy of colonialism... Albert Louis seeks his fortune helping the Americans dig the Panama Canal.
- ^ "The Swinging Bridge". www.litencyc.com. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- ^ "The Paradox of a Hurricane: Death and Love Its Wake". Literary Hub. 26 September 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- ^ "The Hurricane - Derek Walcott". Library Journal. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- S2CID 219749941.
Walcott's poetry does not content itself with decrying the effects of colonial ... like its fruits, its savour', he maintains, 'is a mixture of the acid and the sweet.
- ^ "The Star-Apple Kingdom by Derek Walcott". Poetry Foundation. 23 September 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- OCLC 1143649021.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - S2CID 162579569.
- ^ ISBN 9781139054638.
- OCLC 1021288867.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - S2CID 182217266, retrieved 24 September 2020
- ^ Als, Hilton (17 March 2017). "Derek Walcott, a Mighty Poet, Has Died". The New Yorker. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
Walcott appropriated Greek classics, local folklore and the British literary canon in his explorations of the ambiguities of race, history and cultural identity.
- ISBN 978-0-19-966130-5. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- OCLC 29703241.
Poetry here dresses itself in the garb of dramatic monologue, love letter, TV commercial, diary excerpt, movie criticism, celebrity confession, literary theory, bastinado, manifesto
- ISSN 2334-4415.
- OCLC 1143649021.
In Caribbean literature, (Braschi) is bringing Puerto Rico's plight into play with other nations, states, and semi-nation states of the region.
- S2CID 212759434.
- OCLC 185691280.
Lovelace writes of "traces of Africa, the passions of the black dispossessed, the liturgies of the Shouter churches - he strives to imagine a society which might at last break free from its colonial past, dramatizing the political and psychic struggles of the poor for selfhood."
- ^ "Earl Lovelace | West Indian author". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- ^ "The Trinidad and Tobago Bocas Literary Festival - Bocas Lit Fest". bocaslitfest.com. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
- ^ "Calabash 2014". calabashfestival.org. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
- ^ "The St. Martin Book Fair". houseofnehesipublish.com. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
- ^ "Home | BIM Bim Litfest". bimlitfest.org. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
- ^ "Nature Island Literary Festival and Book Fair | Dominica, West Indies". dominicalitfest.com. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
- ^ "Alliouagana Festival of the Word". litfest.ms. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
- ^ "Antigua and Barbuda Literary Festival". facebook.com. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
- ^ The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature Archived 2015-06-30 at the Wayback Machine, NGC Bocas Lit Fest.
- ^ "Literary Prize", Association of Caribbean Writers.
- ISBN 978-0007222988.
External links
- "Caribbean literature (topic)" (Podcast). University of Oxford Podcasts.
- See many works of Caribbean Literature openly available through the Digital Library of the Caribbean
- A Bibliographical Survey of the West Indian Novel. Master's Thesis. Western Michigan University. 1972. by Ruta Mara Sani