SPA 362 Afro-Caribbean Literature
This course traces the trajectory of Black writers and their literary and critical production in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Students examine major works of Afro-Caribbean writers such as Arturo Schomburg, Gustavo Urrutia, Nicolas Guillén, and Aída Cartagena Portalatín, to name a few, to address their engagement in the construction of Caribbean nations as well as the geographic region more generally. Additionally, students examine the creation of these authors’ Black identity and the construction of race in the Caribbean from the early 1900s to the 1950s. Through a close reading of poetry, prose, theater, radio speeches and newspaper articles, students are able to identify the historical and social processes of nation and region building, and the construction of a racial identity in the Caribbean, particularly, its limits and its multiple interpretations from the voices of Black authors.