Teaching Anglophone Caribbean Literature

This volume in the Options for Teaching series recognizes that the most challenging aspect of introducing students to anglophone Caribbean literature—the sheer variety of intellectual and artistic traditions in Western and non-Western cultures that relate to it—also offers the greatest opportunities to teachers. Courses on anglophone literature in the Caribbean can consider the region's specific histories and contexts even as they explore common issues: the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and colonial education; nationalism; exile and migration; identity and hybridity; class and racial conflict; gender and sexuality; religion and ritual. This volume considers how the availability of materials shapes syllabuses and recommends print, digital, and visual resources for teaching.

The essays examine a host of topics, including the following:

• the development of multiethnic populations in the Caribbean and the role of various creole languages in the literature

• oral art forms, such as dub poetry and reggae music

• the influence of anglophone literature in the Caribbean on literary movements outside it, such as the Harlem Renaissance and black British writing

• Carnival

• religious rituals and beliefs

• specific genres such as slave narratives and autobiography

• film and drama

• the economics of rum

Many essays list resources for further reading, and the volume concludes with a section of additional teaching resources.