This course will investigate Anglophone Caribbean literature's relationship to U.S. empire, from 1898 to the present. Among other things, we will contemplate critical conceptions of transnational/hemispheric literature, iterations of postcolonial critique in both pre- and post-independence eras, the role of race and diaspora in Caribbean literary production, and the intertwined histories of Caribbean and U.S.-American literature. Primary texts will range across the century, touching on prominent moments of U.S.-Caribbean contact such as the Harlem Renaissance, the creation of U.S. bases on Trinidad during World War II, the rise of Black Power across the hemisphere, the U.S. invasion of Grenada, and the contemporary placement of Caribbean-born authors in American academia. Primary texts are likely to include works by authors such as Eric Walrond, Claude McKay, C.L.R. James, V.S. Naipaul, Samuel Selvon, Paule Marshall, Audre Lorde, Jamaica Kincaid, and Caryl Phillips.
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