LIT 259 - The French Caribbean Novel

FDR: HL
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Completion of FW requirement. A stylistic and thematic study of identity acquisition through exile, marginalization, struggle, reintegration and cultural blending or any other sociologically significant phenomenon reflected in the literary works of the most important post-colonial French West Indian authors. Spawned largely by Aimé Césaire’s book-length poem, Notebook of a Return to My Native Land , French Caribbean novels have proliferated since the end of World War II. After taking a brief look first at this seminal poem, the course then focuses analytically on novels written by authors such as Haitian Jacques Roumain, Guadeloupeans Simone Schwarz-Bart and Maryse Condé, and Martinicans Joseph Zobel, Raphaël Confiant, and Édouard Glissant. Several films based on, or pertaining to, Césaire’s poem and to certain novels are also viewed.