Rebellion, Revision, and Renewal

doi:10.1017/CHO9781316050859.026

22 - Rebellion, Revision, and Renewal

Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean Women Writers in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

from Part III - Women Writers In-Between: Socialist, Modern, Developmentalists, and Liberal Democratic Ideals

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2015

Kanika Batra

Edited by

Ileana Rodríguez and

Mónica Szurmuk

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Ileana Rodríguez: Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Mónica Szurmuk: Affiliation:
Instituto de Literatura Hispanoamericana, Argentina

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Summary

The origins of Caribbean women's writing are often dated from the mid-nineteenth century and other forms of oral and literary creativity predate the nineteenth century. This chapter focuses on Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean women's writing, primarily, though not exclusively, in Jamaica, Trinidad, Guadeloupe, Haiti, and Martinique. It highlights the key concerns of twentieth and twenty-first century Caribbean women writers. Some of these concerns are contesting stereotypes of docile femininity and rebellious masculinity by representing female rebellion against slave capitalism. Since cultural diversity has been the hallmark of Caribbean societies, sexuality emerges as another aspect of diversity. Given the cultural hybridity of the Caribbean it is unsurprising that many writers of the region speak to and from more than one location. The chapter explores ideas of language, history, and body in Caribbean women's literature. Finally, it provides brief account of how Caribbean women have written about and addressed the world they inhabit.

Keywords

Latin America's historical avant-gardes literary culture cultural life women writers

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Latin American Women's Literature , pp. 381 - 395

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781316050859.026 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2015

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