Diasporic Cultures in the Caribbean and Caribbean Literature: An Overview Pinchia Feng 馮品佳 NCTU

Diasporic Cultures in the Caribbean “The Caribbean is a region in which the aboriginal communities [Amerindians-- Arawaks, Caribs, etc.] were virtually exterminated, and replaced by peoples from Africa, Asia and Europe.” --Louis James names: West Indies/ the Antilles/ the Caribbean

Map of the Caribbean

Images of the Caribbean 1 Jan van de Straet’s engraving “America”--the new world as a woman

Images of the Caribbean 2 John Stedman slave family life image of happy slaves

Caribbean Literature--Chronology Columbus’s “discovery” of the West Indies 1808 Britain and USA abolished slave trade 1838 complete abolition of slavery in British colonies 1845 East Indian indentured laborers in Trinidad; Chinese indenture in French colonies 1950 “colonization in reverse”: West Indian migration to England

“Colonization in Reverse” What a joyful news, Miss Mattie; Ah feel like me heart gwine burs-- Jamaica people colonizin Englan in verse By de hundred, by de tousan From country an from town, By de ship-load, by the plane-load, Jamaica is Englan boun.

Dem a pout out a Jamaica; Everybody future plan Is fi get a big-time job An settle in de motherlan What a islan! What a people! Man an woman, ole and young Jussa pack dem bag an baggage An tun history upside dung! --Louis Bennett

Caribbean Literature--Chronology The Federation of the West Indies 1962 independence for Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago; restrictions imposed on West Indian immigration to Britain 1966 independence for Barbados and Guyana

Caribbean Literature--Overview 1 Edward Kamau Brathwaite--“Little Tradition” (the culture of ordinary people) vs “Great Tradition”--the writer functions in, from, for his own society (cultural nationalism) V.S. Naipaul--writer’s “self-cultivation” to get out of West Indies, a “destitute,” sterile void

Caribbean Literature--Overview 2 “New Day”--London West Indies importance of West Indian poetry since Independence--openness to pop culture and esp. to music (reggae and calypso); appeal of public performance; acceptance of social responsibility --poetry has a “function” (poetry vs fiction as a middle-class genre) amateur poetic practice in the WI

Artistic Expressions of Caribbean Creolization ﹠ Caribbean Spirituality See dlit/photos/caribbean_arts.html dlit/photos/caribbean_arts.html