Introduction  8/25

Main issues:

• The Geographic concept of  the anglophone Caribbean

    1. What does anglophone mean?
    2. What does it mean when placed in front of Caribbean: Anglophone Caribbean?   What is the anglophone Caribbean – geographically speaking?

    Countries formerly colonized and still colonized by England: These include look at the map:
     The Bahamas, The Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos,  British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Monserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the                 Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Belize.

• The History of the Caribbean

1. Largely inhabited by Amerindians until Columbus arrived in the late 15th century and established Spanish colonies, followed by colonization by England, France, The Netherlands, and Denmark
2. Near decimation of the indigenous population with main exception being Guyana – and a Carib Territory in Dominica – leaving basically archeological information, some words (e.g. hurricane) and cultural practices – but not people.
3. Immigration of people from Europe, importation of slave labor from Africa and indentured labour from India, China, Africa.
4. Key points:
• Nearly the entire population of the most of the region came from elsewhere.  No one is indigenous; No one can claim that the place belonged to them “originally.”
• Culture and Society formed through the interaction between these groups mostly African, Asian, and European origins – often competitive and hostile between these groups – a process called by many scholars creolization.

• The impact and implications of Caribbean history and Geography on Caribbean Literature

1. The literature must engage with
• the colonial history
• multiple ethnic groups or the process of creolization

  2.   Anglophone Caribbean literature is closely linked to or belongs to a number of literary traditions:
• Caribbean including all language groups
• African Diaspora – Close historical ties on a number of levels to African, African American writers, and writers of African descent located elsewhere such as Britain and Latin America – subcategory of Harlem Renaissance, Black women writers, Black British writers
• Commonwealth – many nations previously colonized by the England: include
• Postcolonial – Nations colonized and formerly colonized and neo-colonized by other nations,  mostly European countries and the U.S.
• American/North American
Because the Caribbean is geographically part of North America
Because Caribbean has been culturally and economically linked to the U.S. since 18th century
Because of a shared history of slavery and plantation economy

The purpose of this class is not to choose one literary tradition or Canon as more appropriate but to examine the significance or implications of  placing anglophone Caribbean literature or specific texts within different literary traditions.