Compiled, designed & circulated by:
Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College
ENGLISH (CC); SEM-V: PAPER- C11T (Caribbean Literature)
Caribbean Literature: A discussion: —
With the publication of Said’s Orientalism (1978), the literature of the former colonized countries has been able to be tinged with a new colour and meaning. The so called oppressed got their voice to ‘tell their own story’. As a result of it many countries have been able to decorate their oeuvre of literature in their own way. Postcolonialism helped them to think and write about themselves in their own way. As a result of it postcolonialism gave birth to many new fields of literature. Among them Latin American Literature and Caribbean Literature have achieved worldwide fame. They have picturized the world hitherto unknown.
Caribbean Literature is one of the remarkable literatures of the ‘New world’. Before going to the very core of this literature we have to have some idea about nomenclature of the literature.
From the name it is as clear as water that Caribbean Literature refers to the literature of the Caribbean Island. That is to say that Caribbean Literature is the literature of the various territories of Caribbean island. These islands include Antigua, and Barbuda, Bahamas, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago. So, one may easily say that Caribbean Literature is the literature of the West Indies. Though the two terms are used interchangeably, there is a certain difference in between these two terms.
Caribbean Literature vs. West Indian Literature: — It is very difficult to mark a demarcation line in between Caribbean Literature and the West Indian Literature. Most of the time both these terms are used interchangeably. Caribbean Literature linked to “insidious racism” and the justification of the slave labour of the Caribbean. On the contrary, the term
Compiled, designed & circulated by:
Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College
ENGLISH (CC); SEM-V: PAPER- C11T (Caribbean Literature)
‘West Indian ’was first used for indigenous people and subsequently both for settlers of European origin and people of African origin brought to the areas as slaves West Indian. The term was coined by European power.
Salient features of Caribbean Literature: — The Caribbean people are of mixed identity.
The colonizers from western Europe brought slaves from the countries of African islands for plantations. When the slavery was superseded by The Emancipation Act-1863, a different kind of labour force began to be imported into these islands from the countries like India and the like. These laborers from the east are called indentured labourers. So, it will be an exaggeration to say that a kind of mixed culture and language began to develop there due to the interaction in between European colonizer and the imported slaves. Hence, the following characteristic are clearly discernible in the Caribbean Literature—
i. The issue of identity: —As the slaves were imported mainly from Africa and later on from the countries of the East, they had a certain kind of lacuna in identity. They were no longer of their motherland and they were not also of their ‘new land’. So, they were of both the land or of no land at the same time. Thus, a kind of crisis in identity can be traced in the Caribbean Literature.
ii. The issue of culture: —As it is already said that the people of the Caribbean islands were imported from the different land. So, there culture is both transported and transplanted. To clarify, there culture is transported because the people have been transported from different land. On the other hand, as they have been settled in a
Compiled, designed & circulated by:
Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College
ENGLISH (CC); SEM-V: PAPER- C11T (Caribbean Literature)
new land their culture is transplanted. So, an amalgamation of two or more culture has made the culture of the Caribbean islands a hybrid one.
iii. The issue of language: — Language is a vital issue for the writers of Caribbean Literature. As the Caribbean people were imported people, they had not their own language. Gradually, a creole language came as a medium of communication between the people of different mother tongues.
Different genres of Caribbean Literature: — Very recently Caribbean Literature has got a worldwide fame. The compass of Caribbean literature includes fiction, poetry and drama.
Apart from that there are some nonfictional prose.
Fiction: — The notable writers of fictions are Edward Mittelhoizer, V. s. Naipaul, Jean Rhys.
Poetry: — Edward Braithwaite, Derek Walcott.
Drama: — Derek Walcott.
Essayist and cultural theorist: — Stuart Hall, Amié Césaire
Reference (s): —
1. Batra, Shakti, Three contemporary poets (A critical study) 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_literature
Compiled, designed & circulated by:
Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College
ENGLISH (CC); SEM-V: PAPER- C11T (Caribbean Literature)
