Category Archives: Caribbean literature

Adrienne Rich’s ghazals

Posted on February 27, 2014 by wcd2

February 27, 2014 Her earliest ghazals are in Leaflets, at the very end of the volume, which I must have looked at. But I’m reading them seriously only now — because of Agha Shahid Ali and Call Me Ishmael Tonight, … Continue reading →

Posted in Arabic, Black-Jewish alliances, Caribbean literature, Contemporary novel, Indian Ocean, Middle East, Near Eastern poetry, Poetry, Twentieth century literature | Tagged Adrienne Rich, Agha Shahid Ali, Call Me Ishmael Tonight, Frantz Fanon, ghazals, Leaflets, Martinique | Leave a comment

Stuart Hall and vernacular modernity

Posted on February 14, 2014 by wcd2

February 14, 2014 The passing of Stuart Hall makes me go back to his seminal essay, “Negotiating Caribbean Identities,” where he talks about “vernacular modernity” as the “modernity of the blues, of gospel music, of hybrid black music in its … Continue reading →

Posted in African languages, African-American music, Americas, Auditory field, Caribbean literature, Contemporary novel, Igbo, indigenous communities, Music, Native American language | Tagged "Negotiating Caribbean Identities, Abenakis, Black Witch of Salem, I Tituba, Ibos, Jamaican maroons, Maine Woods, Maryse Condé, Miles Davis, Paule Marshall, Praisesong for the Widow, Stuart Hall, Thoreau | Leave a comment

Oscar Hijuelos, The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O’Brien

Posted on October 16, 2013 by wcd2

October 16, 2013 This week saw the passing of Oscar Hijuelos: guitar-playing, cake-loving (I suspect), also lover of bountiful, sometimes over-stuffed prose. His father was the morning-to-lunch shift cook at the Biltmore Hotel, so he definitely knew a thing or … Continue reading →

Posted in Caribbean literature, Cities, Contemporary novel, Cuba, Diaspora, Food in literature, Latin America, Latino/a literature, Music | Tagged A Simple Habana Melody, Cuba, Harlem, Mambo KIng Plays Songs of Love, Oscar Hijuelos, Our House in the Last World, The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien | Leave a comment

Mama Day: The Tempest in the Global South

Posted on October 2, 2013 by wcd2

October 2, 2014 Her name is Miranda (“Mama”) Day — yes, that Miranda, the one who said, “Oh, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is!” Gloria Naylor is not the first to take on Shakespeare, of course. … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Americas, Caribbean literature, Contemporary novel, Gender, Global South, Race, slavery, world literature | Tagged Aime Césaire, George Lamming, Gloria Naylor, Mama Day, Shakespeare, The Tempest, Tunisia, Une Tempête, Water with Berries | Leave a comment

Zora Neale Hurston: American literature as World Literature?

Posted on August 14, 2013 by wcd2

August 14, 2013 The polemical essay, “World Lite,” just out in n+1, is perhaps generating more heat than light. But it does raise an interesting question: what exactly is “world literature”? How broad its scope, and what could be in … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Caribbean literature, Catholicism, Colonization, Creole, Diaspora, Global South, Igbo, Latin America, peripheral networks, Race, slavery, Twentieth century literature, World religions | Tagged " n+1, "World Lite, Congo, Dahomey, Guinea, Haiti, Harlem, Jamaica, loa, mysteres, Tell My Horse, Their Eyes Were Watching God, world literature, Zora Neale Hurston | Leave a comment

Beyond a Boundary: C. L. R. James in Glasgow

Posted on May 13, 2013 by wcd2

May 13, 2013 Scotland and the Caribbean? The architecture of Glasgow tells a dramatic story. Here, in the center of town, is the many-pillared Gallery of Modern Art, monumental even for a museum, which used to be the … Continue reading →

Posted in Americas, architecture, Atlantic, Caribbean literature, Cities, Colonization, Contemporary Art, film medium, Global South, oceans, Race, scale, slavery, Sports, Twentieth century literature, Universities | Tagged African National Congress, Atlantic trade, BBC, Beyond a Boundary, C. L. R. James, Cambridge University, cricket, F W de Klerk, Gallery of Modern of Modern Art, Guradian, John Arlott, Middlesex, Mike Brearley, Mike Dibb, Nelson Mandela, Robert Hill, Scotland, Selma James, Sout Africa, suger cane, tobacco, University of Glasgow, West Indies, William Cunninghame | Leave a comment

Michelle Cliff, Adrienne Rich: Animal Sound

Posted on April 3, 2013 by wcd2

April 3, 2013 It’s surprisingly difficult to find a photo of the two of them. In fact I found only one. Yet they’ve been together since 1976, a companionship of almost 40 years. Maybe photos aren’t the point? … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, African languages, Animals, Auditory field, Black-Jewish alliances, Caribbean literature, Contemporary literature, Diaspora, Ethnicity, Media, Music, peripheral networks | Tagged "Fox, Abeng, Adrienne Rich, Akan, Michelle Cliff, Twi language | Leave a comment

Jack Kerouac, Edwidge Danticat: Joual and Creole

Posted on October 10, 2012 by wcd2

October 10, 2012 The name on his birth certificate is Jean Louis Kirouac – that’s the most common spelling of the name in Quebec, which is where his parents were from. His father, Léon-Alcide, continued to work as a printer … Continue reading →

Posted in African-American literature, Americas, Atlantic, Autobiography, Canada, Caribbean literature, Cities, Comparative literature, Contemporary novel, Creole, Diaspora, Ethnicity, Gender, Global South, Latin America, Libraries, Media, mexico, peripheral networks, print medium, Publishers, Radio, Twentieth century literature, Vernacular dialects | Tagged Creole, Edwidge Danticat, French, Gabriel Anctil, Haiti, Jack Kerouac, Joual, La Nuit est ma femme, Le Devoir, Lowell MA, New York Public Library, Québécois, Sur le chemin | 1 Comment

Atlantic Sound: Caryl Phillips, Thomas Pynchon, Richard and Mimi Fariña

Posted on August 22, 2012 by wcd2

August 22, 2012 At the end of The Atlantic Sound, Caryl Phillips is in Israel, visiting a community of Black Hebrews, almost 2000 of them, African-Americans who emigrated from the United States. They have given up their U.S. citizenship, but … Continue reading →

Posted in African-American literature, African-American music, Asia, Atlantic, Black-Jewish alliances, Caribbean literature, collaboration, Creole, Diaspora, Educational institutions, Ethnicity, Mediterranean, Middle East, Music, oceans, peripheral networks, Remediation, slavery, Twentieth century literature, Universities, World history, world literature, YouTube videos | Tagged African diaspora, African-American, Atlantic Sound, Benny Profane, Black Hebrews, Bob Marley, Botticelli, Brazil, Brooklyn, Caryl Phillips, Celebrations for a Grey Day, Israel, Jamaica, Joan Baez, Laurie Anderson, Radiohead, Redemption Song, Richard and Mimi Fariña, Tekiyah, Thomas Pynchon, V, Venus, Vheissu | Leave a comment

Spanish Civil War: Hughes and Hemingway

Posted on July 4, 2012 by wcd2

July 4, 2012 The Beinecke Library doesn’t have a great Hemingway Collection (most of his material is at the JFK Presidential Library in Boston), but I did find a rare photo, taken in Madrid in 1937, Hemingway with Langston Hughes, … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Arabic, Caribbean literature, collaboration, Cuba, Cuban poetry, Ethnicity, Global South, Islam, Latin America, Letters, Libraries, Modernist poetry, Newspapers, peripheral networks, Spanish, Translation, Twentieth century literature, world literature | Tagged Baltimore Afro-American, Beinecke Library, Cuba Libre, Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bells Tolls, General Franco's Moors, Gypsies, Havana, JFK Presidential Library, Langston Hughes, Michael Koltyov, Moors, Nicolas Guillen, Oklahoma, Spanish Civil War | 2 Comments