Browse by Subject: Literature

Any observer of Dominican political and literary discourse will quickly notice the prevalence of certain notions of hyper-masculinity. In this extraordinary work, Maja Horn argues that these gender conceptions became ingrained during the dictatorship (1930-1961) of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, as well as through the U.S. military occupation that preceded it.

Using feminist and womanist theory, Simone Alexander takes as her main point of analysis literary works that focus on the black female body as the physical and metaphorical site of migration. She shows that over time black women have used their bodily presence to complicate and challenge a migratory process often forced upon them by men or patriarchal society.

In this one-of-a-kind volume, Iraida López explores various narratives of return by those who left Cuba as children or adolescents.

Maria McGarrity's guide is the ideal resource for mapping the intricate matrix of allusions in Derek Walcott's Omeros.

Anne Fountain argues that it was in the United States that Martí--confronted by the forces of manifest destiny, the influence of race in politics, the legacy of slavery, and the plight and promise of the black Cuban diaspora--fully engaged with the specter of racism. Examining Martí's complete works with a focus on key portions, Fountain reveals the evolution of his thinking on the topic, indicating the significance of his sources, providing a context for his writing, and offering a structure for his works on race.

This bilingual volume includes narrative poems, sonnets, excerpts from Arenas's prose poems, and previously unpublished works from his papers at Princeton University. Both the Spanish originals as well as English translations seamlessly capture the poet's sarcasm, humor, and powerful rhythms.

In Creole Renegades, Bénédicte Boisseron looks at exiled Caribbean authors--Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid, V. S. Naipaul, Maryse Condé, Dany Laferriére, and more--whose works have been well received in their adopted North American countries but who are often viewed by their home islands as sell-outs, opportunists, or traitors.

This delightful collection is designed to assist students in developing their reading, speaking, and writing knowledge of Portuguese as it is used in present-day Brazil.

In Island Bodies, Rosamond King examines sexualities, violence, and repression in the Caribbean experience. She analyzes the sexual norms and expectations portrayed in Caribbean and diaspora literature, music, film, and popular culture to show how many individuals contest traditional roles by maneuvering within and/or trying to change their society's binary gender systems.

Rafael Ocasio delves into Costumbrismo and Cuban literature to offer up a new perspective on the development of Cuban identity, as influenced by black culture and religion, during the sugar cane boom.