Teaching Anglophone Caribbean Literature
- Editor: Supriya M. Nair
- Pages: x & 459 pp.
- Published: 2012
- ISBN: 9781603291071 (Paperback)
- ISBN: 9781603291064 (Hardcover)
“What distinguishes [the book] is its point of view, which prizes inclusiveness and innovation, as it comes to terms with the complexity and multifariousness of the literature, and its insistence on giving insight into that literature through a variety of contexts.”
—New West Indian Guide
This volume in the Options for Teaching series recognizes that the most challenging aspect of introducing students to anglophone Caribbean literature—the sheer variety of intellectual and artistic traditions in Western and non-Western cultures that relate to it—also offers the greatest opportunities to teachers. Courses on anglophone literature in the Caribbean can consider the region’s specific histories and contexts even as they explore common issues: the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and colonial education; nationalism; exile and migration; identity and hybridity; class and racial conflict; gender and sexuality; religion and ritual. While considering how the availability of materials shapes syllabi, this volume recommends print, digital, and visual resources for teaching.
The essays examine a host of topics, including the following:
- the development of multiethnic populations in the Caribbean and the role of various creole languages in the literature
- oral art forms, such as dub poetry and reggae music
- the influence of anglophone literature in the Caribbean on literary movements outside it, such as the Harlem Renaissance and black British writing
- Carnival
- religious rituals and beliefs
- specific genres such as slave narratives and autobiography
- film and drama
- the economics of rum
Many essays list resources for further reading, and the volume concludes with a section of additional teaching resources.
Nicole N. Aljoe
Giselle Liza Anatol
Alisa K. Braithwaite
Albert Braz
Joshua Albert Brewer
Timothy Chin
Carolyn Cooper
Grant Farred
Rhonda Frederick
Shane Graham
Vivian Nun Halloran
John C. Hawley
Brinda Mehta
Paula Morgan
Denise deCaires Narain
Jennifer P. Nesbitt
Sandra Pouchet Paquet
Louis J. Parascandola
Mimi Pipino
Elaine Savory
April Shemak
Faith Smith
Karina Smith
Elizabeth Way
Acknowledgments (ix)
Introduction: Caribbean Groundings and Limbo Gateways (1)
Part I: Movements and Migrations
The Other Postcolonial Wars: Amerindians versus Coastlanders in The Ventriloquist’s Tale (29)
The Slave Narrative in the Anglophone Caribbean (45)
Locating India in the Caribbean: Indo-Caribbean Literature, Gender, and Subjectivity (60)
Behind the Counter: Teaching Chinese Jamaican Texts in the Caribbean Literature Course (80)
Anglophone Caribbean Immigrants in the Harlem Renaissance (98)
Black Britain and Its Antecedents (113)
Literary and Linguistic Crossings: The Shifting Boundaries of Anglophone Caribbean Literature (131)
Part II: Ritual, Performance, and Popular Culture
“Disguise Up de English Language”: Turning Linguistic Tricks in Creole-Anglophone Caribbean Literature (155)
“Play Mas Bachannal”: Toward a Pedagogy of J’ouvert and Identity Politics (168)
Using Film to Enhance Cultural Understanding: Images of Jamaica in How Stella Got Her Groove Back and The Harder They Come (183)
From Obeah to Syncretism: Teaching Gothic Literature and Early Caribbean Spiritual Culture (199)
The Politics of Collective Creation: Teaching Sistren’s Bellywoman Bangarang and Ida Revolt inna Jonkonnu Stylee (220)
Part III: Interpretive Approaches
Reading the Nineteenth Century (233)
Beyond the Pale, Beyond the Dark: Representing Caribbean Racial Realities at a US University (255)
Materializing the Anglophone Caribbean Text: Rum, a Case Study (279)
Unspeakable Thoughts, Unspoken Loss in Shani Mootoo’s Cereus Blooms at Night: Trauma, Gender, and Sexuality (292)
On Daffodils and Castaways: Intertextual Approaches to Teaching Anglophone Caribbean Literature (305)
Reading about Reading in the Anglophone Caribbean Novel (317)
Anglophone Caribbean Literature in Context: A Comparative Perspective (330)
Part IV: Course Contexts
Teaching Anglophone Caribbean Literature: Creolization, Carnival, Crossings (343)
Autobiographical Occasions: A Graduate Seminar in Caribbean Autobiography (365)
Teaching Mary Seacole in a First-Year Writing Seminar (380)
“Prediction and Memory”: Two Texts in Conversation: Homer’s Odyssey and Derek Walcott’s Omeros (405)
Gender, the Pastoral, and the Postcolonial Caribbean (420)
Part V: Teaching Resources
A Selective Guide to Anglophone Caribbean Literature (435)
Notes on Contributors (445)
Index (451)
“This volume offers the necessary coverage, the range of critical approaches, and the practical instruction that will make it very useful to anyone teaching the subject . . . a balanced and informed discussion.”
—J. Michael Dash, New York University
“This monumental volume represents a core reference source for scholars, researchers and academics interested in teaching aspects of Anglophone Caribbean literature. The twenty-six essays collected in this compendium bear witness to the conspicuous presence and growing interest in the literature of the Caribbean within academic circles.”
—Caribbean Quarterly
“Reading across the volume, with its rich array of perspectives and theoretical investments, will enable instructors of Caribbean literature to reflect more deeply on the choices that we make with regard to period focus, language, and ‘high’ and ‘low’ genres and media.”
—H-Caribbean
“A worthy and valuable addition to the field of Caribbean literature.”
—Research in African Literatures
