What is the Caribbean? Does history begin with Christopher Columbus? Should one consider the Native American component as a significant element in the construction of this region or should the Caribbean simply be called a New World which developed with slavery and the plantation system?

Are the Caribbean people Native American, Indian, European, African, Asian or are they a fascinating métissage (mix) of all these ethnicities? What are the historical, cultural and political situations of Francophone Caribbean people (Haiti and the “French Overseas Departments”) within the global Caribbean region? Why are the literary movements of Négritude, Antillanité, Créolité such an important contribution to a better understanstanding of the Caribbean and to the enrichment of the now flourishing subject of Postcolonial Studies?

Come and whet your intellectual curiosity about the Caribbean through the study of prose, fiction, plays, poems, critical essays and films on Aimé Césaire, Raphael Confiant, Maryse Condé, Léopold Senghor, and more. This course satisfies Multicultural requirement.