This course will examine 20th Century Caribbean prose fiction—novels, novellas, and short stories—from the English-, Spanish-, and French-speaking regions of the Caribbean. In focusing on Caribbean fiction, this course will explore how these representations engage with historical, political, economic, and environmental issues in the region and in its global presence. We will examine texts from throughout the century, and all works will be read in English.

Additionally, the course will explore how a U.S.-based readership can engage with Caribbean literature produced in a region important to the history of the Americas. This engagement is three-part: 1) immersing ourselves critically in the texts under study, 2) understanding the cultural and historical context of their production, and 3) engaging with the Caribbean’s literary production in relation to us as readers who inhabit the large next-door neighbor to the region.

In addition, as a "W" course, this one carries a specific writing focus: 10-15 pages of graded, out-of-class writing, in the form of three short papers (2-3 pages) and one longer paper (5-7 pages).
The purpose of this writing is not to demonstrate mastery—of the region, of its literature—but to help engage with the texts and their and our contexts. Writing for this course has both a formal (as mentioned above) and informal place, but in both cases is a place to explore meanings, connections, and ideas. As such, all of the formal course writing will involve substantial peer and instructor feedback, and substantial revision, and all of the informal writing will help both discussion and development of the formal writing assignments. There will also be a small group presentation required.

4. Book List:

Claude McKay (Jamaica), Banana Bottom (1933), ISBN 978-0156106504
Joseph Zobel (Martinique), Black Shack Alley (1950), ISBN 978-0914478683
Marie Vieux Chauvet (Haiti), Love, Anger, Madness (1968), ISBN 978-081297692-2
Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe), Crossing the Mangrove (1989), ISBN 978-0385476331
Antonio Benítez-Rojo (Cuba), A View from the Mangrove (1998), ISBN 978-1558492615
Junot Díaz (Dominican Republic-U.S.), Drown (1996), ISBN 978-1573226066