HISP 460 - Repeating Islands: Literatures of the Caribbean

FC ARHU CD WADV

4 credits
Cuban writer Antonio Benítez Rojo held that within the apparent historical, linguistic, and ethnic heterogeneity of the Caribbean, one could identify an “island that repeats itself,” a core experience which, despite being impossible to access, offers a series of indexes or tropes which bridge the Antilles with North and South America, India, Gambia, etc. Motivated by Benítez Rojo, this course engages with a series of Caribbean writers not only to offer a survey of the literature of the region, but also as an inquiry into the possibility or impossibility of a label such as “Caribbean literature.” We will read works by Alejo Carpentier, Mayra Santos Febres, Raquel Salas Rivera, Rita Indiana, VS Naipaul, Derek Walcott, Jamaica Kincaid, Edouard Glissant, Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Dionne Brandt, and Aimé Césaire. Taught in English. Field trip(s) required.

Prerequisites: CMPL 200 or two 300-level courses in HISP.

This course is cross-listed with CMPL-460