Constructing Caribbean Literary History (original) (raw)

BACKGROUND TO CARIBBEAN LITERATURE

The abrupt "beginning" of the history of the Caribbean, coupled with the brutal mode of occupation and violence among the colonizing forces has led many scholars to conclude that the area is "historyless" and unlikely to proceed further than its crude and violent beginnings. This paper examines this peculiar history and its attendant effect on the shaping and criticism of Caribbean literature. Since Caribbean literature is also, to some extent, a response to history, the paper also highlights the major individual Caribbean writers' responses to the history of this place. Being mainly library-based, the research relies on such critical materials as articles, reviews, books and interviews published on the literature of this place. Works in the area of history also help to shed light on the historical realities of this place. In the end, it is found out that as a result of the debilitating history of this area, much of the criticism of the literature of this place is often "jaundiced". However, it is believed that despite this stereotyped criticism and despite the assertion that history exerts a definitive influence on the creative imagination, the Caribbean man can live down the ravages of history and transcend his alien milieu.

Caribbean Literature in English

英語英文学研究, 2016

Li terature in Engl is h Mukesh K Williams Most postcolonial literatures in English have emerged since the 1930s as educational opportunities became available to the indigenous populations of the Empire. The dissemination of colonial education does two things: it reduces the scope of indigenous knowledge and oral tradition, and at the same time allows the development of 'critique of colonial rule', which later develops into an ideology of nationalism. In the Caribbean region too the trajectory of written forms of literatures in English trace this course; and the production of literatures in English are directly related to the opening up of economic and educational opportunities for indigenous and non-white populations in the 1930s. The positivist ideas coming from Europe enter the cultural and intellectual discourses of island societies of the Caribbean region through colonial schools and, to some extent, through the Anglican and Catholic Church organizations, creating a ferment of ideas. This intellectual ferment leads to a growing self-consciousness and an awareness of colonial exploitation, cultural fragmentation and psychological dispossession, all chosen as first-class themes by Caribbean writers to carve out their unique and composite identity in and through literary and non-literary writings. During the nearly seventy years of its history, the literatures of the British Caribbean, and later of the independent Caribbean region, have developed rapidly

Here and Elsewhere: Essays on Caribbean Literature by Gerald Guinness

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Caribbean Literature in Spanish

2004

The literatures ofthe three hispanophone islands ofthe Caribbean -Cuba, the Dominic an Repub lic, and Puerto Rico -are the oldest in the region. Their ori gins can be trac ed back to an Arawak oral tradition rich in m yth and legend gathered in all its vividn ess by Spanish Friar Ramon Pane in his Relacion acerca de lasantigiiedadesdes los indios, lascuales, con diligencia, como hombre quesabe su idioma, recogio por mandato delAlmirante (1571) (An Account of th e Antiquities of the Indians, Gathered Diligentl y by a Man Who Knows Their Language; Chronicles of the New World Encount ers, 1999) -tha t spe aks of a worldview centered on a harm onious relationship between religion , culture, politics, and patt erns of work and exchange. Pane , who lived in Hispaniola from 1494 to 1499, gathered a rich trove of myths, belie fs, and aborigin al religious practices that constitute most ofwhat we know ofthe Ame rindian lore ofthe Caribbean. Together w ith the man y descript ions foun d in Spanish chronicles ofthe danc ing and sing ing ritua ls known as areitos, through which the Tainos recorded their histo ry and recon structed through dr ama salient episodes of everyday life, th ey offer glimpses of rich cultural tr aditions lost th rough the impact of warfare and the virgin soil epidemics that decim ated th e aboriginal population of the Caribbean. The picture they con vey, ofa society dep endent on a simple economy of subsistence agricultu re and fishing, survived the devastation and environmental assault of European conquest and coloni zati on to make an im portant cont ribution to Puerto Rican, Do minican and , to a lesser extent, Cuban ru ral cultu res, laying the foundation for tra ditions ofresistance that would later serve as a counter worl d to the economy of the plant ation. The rural subsis tenc e farmer, a figure that with time would become the liter ary symbol of cultural au then ticity and national purity th roughout the H ispanic Caribbean, traces its existe nce and worldview to th e Taino l Arawak tr aditions captured with such vitality by Pane, later syncretized with Spanish and African customs.

Contributions of CLR James to Understanding Caribbean Literature

Contributions of CLR James to Understanding Caribbean Literature, 2019

In this paper, I study Cyril Lionel Richard (C.L.R) James's contribution to understanding Caribbean Literature. Premium is placed critical analysis on the Black Jacobins which documents the first uprising of men of color against the white oppressors and slave masters in Saint Domingue. Emphasis is also spread to James' anti-colonial messages in his writings and how they would later influence other anti-colonial texts in the region.