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INTRODUCTION
Caribbean
Literature, written and oral literature of the
Caribbean from before the arrival of Europeans in the 15th
century to the present. This literature emerged within a
context of many languages and cultures. The languages of
the Caribbean—French, English, Spanish, and Dutch—are
remnants of the colonizing powers and their historical
encounters with the region. Creoles and local patois
(hybrid languages) developed from the mixture of European
languages with Native American languages, especially Carib
and Arawak, and the languages of Africans brought to the
Caribbean as slaves. Asians, primarily from India and
China, and Middle Easterners also contribute to the
region’s cultural diversity.
The
topics of Caribbean literature encompass the historical
issues of enslavement and forced migration, the related
themes of home and exile, and colonialism and
decolonization. Caribbean literature also embraces the
social and cultural themes of tradition, landscape,
culture, and community, and addresses such universal
questions as identity, sexuality, family life, pain, joy,
and the uses of the imagination.
To
limit Caribbean literature to writing produced in the
Caribbean islands, however, is to exclude a large body of
work. Caribbean literature also originated in the area of
Central and South America that borders the Caribbean Sea:
Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana; and coastal areas of
Colombia, Nicaragua, Belize, and Honduras. Even some of
the literature produced in the United States cities of
Miami, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, shares certain
aspects of Caribbean culture. Also included in Caribbean
literature are works written by people of Caribbean
ancestry who live outside the Caribbean, primarily in
Europe and major urban centers of the United States.
ORAL
LITERATURE: The earliest form of Caribbean literature
is oral literature, consisting of a rich folktale
tradition, legends and myths, and songs and poetry. It
flourishes today in popular music, such as the calypso,
the Cuban son, and the Puerto Rican bomba;
in storytelling customs derived from West Africa and
India; and in supernatural tales from African religions,
including Santería, lucumi, vodun (see Voodoo),
and Shango. Caribbean oral literature also thrives in
proverbs, riddles, and sayings that reinterpret African,
European, and East Indian traditions. Prominent among
these are anancy (spider trickster) stories; animal
dilemma tales, which typically teach a moral lesson;
stories of village life or evil women; tall tales; and
rhetorical flourishes, such as boasting, toasts, and
speeches.
EARLY
WRITINGS: During the period of European enslavement of
Native American and African people, from the 16th century
to the mid-19th century, the most prevalent Caribbean
literary forms were autobiography and poetry. These works
introduce themes that became common in Caribbean
literature: exile, migration, displacement, and questions
of identity. The most significant of these writings in the
English language is The History of Mary Prince, a West
Indian Slave, Related by Herself (1831).
Early
Caribbean writings in Spanish include the poetry and
autobiography of the slave Juan Francisco Manzano of Cuba
in the 1820s and 1830s. José María Heredia is recognized
as the first Cuban writer (1820) to produce
anti-colonialist poems. Poesías (Poetry, 1838) and
Poesías escogidas (Selected Poetry, 1842) were
written by the slave Plácido, who was executed in 1844
for his role in a slave uprising. Biografía de un
cimarrón (1966; The Autobiography of a Runaway
Slave, 1968), by Cuban anthropologist Miguel Barnet,
is based on the narratives of Esteban Montejo, a
104-year-old former slave who recounted his life through
interviews. Though published much later, this work is
considered a traditional slave narrative. Max Henrique Ureña
of the Dominican Republic wrote nationalist works in the
19th century. In the French-speaking Caribbean, novels
first appeared in Haiti in the mid-19th century: Stella
(1859), by Eméric Bergeaud; and Francesca, les jeux du
sort (Francesca, The Game of Fate, 1873) and Le
damné (The Damned, 1877) by Demesvar Delorme.
20TH-CENTURY
WRITING: Few Caribbean countries gained their
independence before the 20th century; for this reason, the
development of distinct, national literary traditions
began in the 20th century. Caribbean literature of the
20th century can be roughly divided into three periods:
the first 30 years, during colonial rule; the years just
prior to independence, from about 1940 to 1960 or later,
depending on the country; and the period after
independence.
Early
20th Century: A prominent work in the French-speaking
Caribbean is the novel Batouala (1921; translated
1922), by René Maran of Martinique, which won the Prix
Goncourt (a French literary prize). In its call for
identification with black culture it anticipates négritude,
a 1930s movement celebrating African culture and
values. Another precursor of négritude is a study of
Haitian culture, Ainsi parla l’oncle (1928; So
Spoke the Uncle, 1983) by Jean Price-Mars. Although
the négritude movement originated in France, its founders
include Léon-Gontran Damas of French Guiana and Aimé Césaire
of Martinique. Césaire’s poem Cahier d’un retour
au pays natal (1939; Return to My Native Land,
1968) is considered one of the classic compositions of the
négritude movement.
The
negrismo movement in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean
presented African themes in an exotic manner,
appropriating African and black identity for artistic
inspiration. Writers in this movement include Luis Palés
Matos from Puerto Rico and Emilio Ballagas from Cuba. The
works of Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén from the 1930s share
affinities with the politics of négritude. His works
include Motivos de son (Son Motifs, 1930), Sóngoro
cosongo (1931), West Indies, Ltd. (1934), Cantos
para soldados y sones para turistas (Songs for
Soldiers and Rhythms for Tourists, 1937), and El son
entero (The Whole Rhythm, 1947). Guillén’s work
addresses issues surrounding the struggle against
colonialism. Another Cuban, Alejo Carpentier, achieved
recognition with the novels El reino de este mundo
(1949; The Kingdom of This World, 1957) and Los
pasos perdidos (1953; The Lost Steps, 1956),
which explores the history and sources of Caribbean
culture.
The
best-known writers in the English-speaking Caribbean
include Jamaican novelists Tom Redcam (the pseudonym of
Thomas Macdermot), author of Becka’s Buckra Baby
(1904), and Herbert G. de Lisser, author of Jane’s
Career (1914), The White Witch of Rosehall
(1929), and Under the Sun: A Jamaican Comedy
(1937). Jamaican-born poet Claude McKay is perhaps the
best-known writer of this generation internationally. He
produced Constab Ballads (1912) before moving to
New York City. There he became one of the leading writers
of the Harlem Renaissance, a flowering of black culture in
New York in the 1920s and 1930s, with such works as Home
to Harlem (1928) and Banana Bottom (1933). The
works of C. L. R. James of Trinidad include the novel Minty
Alley (1936) and the historical study The Black
Jacobins (1938). In his writings, James protests
against colonialism and helps define the anticolonial
political and cultural struggles of his time. He was
instrumental in the formation of the literary magazines Trinidad
(founded 1929) and The Beacon (founded 1931); these
magazines aided in the development of a Caribbean literary
tradition. Other prominent writers of this period include
Trinidadians Alfred Mendes and Ralph de Boissière, both
of whom contributed short stories, articles, and poetry to
Trinidad and The Beacon.
The
End of Colonial Rule In
the period leading to political independence, a generation
of writers emerged whose works voiced the desire for
liberation and presented a distinctive portrait of
Caribbean culture. The novel New Day (1949), by
Jamaican writer Vic Reid, looks forward to a “new day”
of independence. Roger Mais of Jamaica portrays the
displaced, downtrodden, urban population of the Caribbean
in the novels The Hills Were Joyful Together (1953)
and Brother Man (1954). Mais experiments with jazz
rhythms in his language. Jamaican poet Una Marson uses
blues rhythms in Tropic Reveries (1930) and other
poetry collections. The novel A Morning at the Office
(1950), by Edgar Mittelholzer of Guyana, presents a vivid
portrait of Guyana’s countryside and society. George
Lamming, from Barbados, published In the Castle of My
Skin (1953), one of the first and most important
Caribbean works dealing with childhood and coming of age
in a colonial context. The novel focuses on the struggles
of three young boys with poverty, a colonial education,
social change, and the forging of an identity; hovering in
the background is the promise of migration to the
metropolitan centers. Wilson Harris of Guyana emphasizes
the mythology of Native Americans and Africans in his
novel Palace of the Peacock (1960). Poems of
Resistance from British Guiana (1954), by Guyana’s
Martin Carter, voices a hope for liberation from colonial
rule.
A
number of female writers were also active during this
period. Beryl Gilroy of Guyana wrote novels, children’s
stories, and an autobiography. Some of her works were
published years later, including Frangipani House
(1986), Boy-Sandwich (1989), and Stedman and
Joanna (1991). Sylvia Wynter incorporates elements of
folk culture into The Hills of Hebron: A Jamaican Novel
(1966). From Dominica, Phyllis Shand Allfrey won
recognition for her analysis of colonial power in Orchid
House (1953). Jean Rhys received critical acclaim for
novels about women caught in situations they are unable to
change, including After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie
(1930), Good Morning, Midnight (1939), and Wide
Sargasso Sea (1966).
After
Independence: The era following independence saw the
emergence of poets from the English-speaking Caribbean:
Derek Walcott from Saint Lucia and Edward Kamau
Brathwaite from Barbados. Walcott, who won the Nobel Prize
for literature in 1992, is perhaps the best-known
Caribbean writer internationally. In addition to poetry,
Walcott is well known as a playwright, most notably for
his collection Dream on Monkey Mountain, and Other
Plays (1970). His poetry collections include In a
Green Night (1962), Another Life (1973), The
Star-Apple Kingdom (1979), and Omeros (1990).
At
the same time Edward Kamau Brathwaite challenged the
formal structures of European poetry by adopting the
rhythms, references, and language of the African and
Afro-Caribbean traditions. In The History of the Voice:
The Development of Nation Language in Anglophone Caribbean
Poetry (1984), a study of Caribbean verse, he attempts
to identify and define the linguistic mixture of the
Caribbean. In his essays and poetry, including Rights
of Passage (1967), Masks (1968), and Islands
(1969), Brathwaite broadens the possible uses of language
for a number of subsequent writers, including Jamaican
oral poets Mutabaruka, Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Jean
Binta Breeze.
Other
noted English-language writers from the Caribbean include
V. S. Naipaul and Earl Lovelace. Born in Trinidad of East
Indian ancestry, Naipaul received recognition for novels
that focus on Indians living in the Caribbean, including A
House for Mr. Biswas (1961) and Guerrillas
(1975). His later fiction and nonfiction focused more
often on countries in Asia and Africa. Lovelace, also from
Trinidad, discusses education, poverty, and village life
in his novels, which include The Schoolmaster
(1968), The Dragon Can’t Dance (1979), and Salt
(1996), which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize.
In
the French-speaking Caribbean, prominent contemporary
writers include Daniel Maximin of Guadeloupe and Édouard
Glissant and Patrick Chamoiseau of Martinique. Maximin
explores issues of black identity in L’isolé soleil
(1981; Lone Sun, 1989) and Soufrières
(1987). Glissant’s novels investigate the Afro-Caribbean
heritage. Chamoiseau published Eloge de la Créolité
(Elegy to Creolity, 1989), an examination of Creole
cultural identity cowritten with Jean Bernabé and Raphaël
Confiant. Chamoiseau won the Prix Goncourt for his novel Texaco
(1992; translated 1997).
Maryse
Condé of Guadeloupe is considered a significant voice
among female writers, having won French literary prizes
for her novel Ségou (1984; translated 1987).
Simone Schwarz-Bart, also of Guadeloupe, writes of the
search for identity in the novel Pluie et vent sur Télumée
Miracle (1972; The Bridge of Beyond, 1974),
which is considered her masterpiece. Nancy Morejón of
Cuba is recognized as a leading poetic voice. Her
collection Cuaderno de Granada (1984; Grenada
Notebook, 1984) honors those who participated in
Grenada’s revolution in 1983.
Writers
of Caribbean ancestry living outside the Caribbean are
receiving increasing international recognition. They
include Canadian-based writers Marlene Nourbese Philip
from Tobago and Claire Harris from Trinidad. Olive Senior,
born in Jamaica and later a Canadian resident, was the
first winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, for Summer
Lightning (1986). Astrid Roemer, born in
Dutch-speaking Suriname and a long-time resident of the
Netherlands, has published more than 11 works, including
Over de gekte van een vrouw (About a
Woman’s Madness, 1979). Female writers based in London,
England, include Jean Buffong of Grenada, Joan Riley of
Jamaica, Grace Nichols of Guyana, Amryl Johnson of
Trinidad, Beryl Gilroy of Guyana, and Janice Shinebourne
of Guyana. In the United States, Antiguan-born Jamaica
Kincaid, Dominican-born Julia Alvarez, Haitian-born
Edwidge Danticat, and Jamaican-born Michelle Cliff have
garnered critical attention. Puerto Rican writers in New
York City, dubbed Nuyoricans, include Nicholasa Mohr,
Carmen María Esteves, and Martín Espada. Literary
critics are also recognizing the Caribbean roots of some
African American writers who are explicit about their
Caribbean parentage, including Paule Marshall, Audre Lorde,
and Rosa Guy.
Contributed
By:
Carole
Boyce Davies
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