Introduction to the Francophone Caribbean Novel

4.0 credits

This course surveys Francophone Caribbean literature from its beginnings in the 1940s to the postcolonial age. Study includes major trends and texts that have shaped the emergence of the Francophone Caribbean literary tradition. Issues of cultural confrontations, exile, Pan-Africanism, diasporic migrations and interactions, race, class, and gender in African and Caribbean postcolonial societies are addressed through a close reading of texts. Movies are used as an integral part of this course and help in the understanding of the concept. Authors, among others, include Haitian Jacques Roumain and Jean Metellus, Martinican Frantz Fanon, Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant, Guadeloupean Maryse Condé and Gisèle Pineau.