Breath, Eyes, Memory...Edwidge Danticat

Do some research on the Caribbean and Haiti, particularly. How do we get a view from this text for some of the problems that have plagued that Caribbean or Haiti specifically? Use examples and quotes from the text.


Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat takes place after the Haitian Revolution. The novel is said to break the silence that has monopolized and overtaken the Haitian culture and its rich history. The Haitian Revolution was from 1791 – 1804 and marked the violent time period which ultimately led to the elimination of slavery and the establishment of Haiti as the very first republic ruled by blacks, marking the revolt of 1791 as the only successful slave revolt in history. During the Haitian Revolution state laws were continuously being passed that added stipulations and denied slave entry from the Caribbean. As the American Studies association brings out in an abstract, “The passage of those measures signaled, as Alfred Hunt has persuasively argued, the beginning of the white South’s intellectual blockade, culminating in censorship of the U.S. mail and the suppression of civil liberties and freedom of thought.” (ASA) The novel was said to be the awakening of the Haitian culture that was suppressed during the Haitian Revolution. The novel reveals the hidden stories of the Haitian women and their struggle, how they were “brutalized by a continuing cycle of exploitation, repression, and denial and in doing so evokes the disavowals, blockades, and refusals with which Haiti was greeted by the young American Republic in narrative and foreign policy.” (ASA)

Looking at the women’s struggles in particular, we are able to see evidence from the text of some of the issues that they had to deal with; one of the major issues being rape. The end of chapter seven of the text states, “When they looked up from their plates, my mother and Marc eyed each other like there were things they couldn’t say because of my presence. I tried to stuff myself and keep quiet, pretending that I couldn’t even see them. My mother now had two lives: Marc belonged to her present life, I was a living memory from her past.” This passage touches on the fact that a lot of the Haitian women were being taken advantage of and raped by the Americans that were supposed to be there helping them, however this was just the façade that was presented. Rape to young Haitian women was so common during this time, that it had a lasting effect on all of the women who were directly and indirectly touched by it. It led the Haitian women to go to such extremes as testing to ensure and “protect” the virginity of their daughters.



Donaldson, Susan. "Recovering Haiti: Silence, History and Trauma in Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association, . 2009-05-24

White Noise...Don DeLillo

Do a researched blog on the meaning of “postmodernism.” Why is this a post modern novel? What components of the novel make it postmodern? Use quotes to support your answer.


Postmodernism is defined by Dictionary.com as “any of a number of trends or movements in the arts and literature developing in the 1970s in reaction to or rejection of the dogma, principles, or practices of established modernism…” Postmodernism depicts a historical period, beginning after World War II and continuing until today. It addresses certain concerns, affinities, and sensibilities. Based upon this definition, a lot of critics view the era of postmodernism in literature as a simple borrowing from older works. Despite this, White Noise written by Don DeLillo has served to the literary community as the standard example of a work that employs the postmodern attitude. The main traces of postmodernism within this novel lie in it being considered a sort of information overload, in which the protagonist Jack Gladney is surrounded by constant media stimuli and digital marketing imagery.

The majority of professors are currently using White Noise to introduce their students to the idea of postmodernism and the way it affects literature as well as other art forms. In an article written by Cornel Bonca entitled, “Don DeLillo’s White Noise: The natural language of the species” he mentions the effect that the novel and the discussion of postmodernism have on our students. His testimony reminded me of the class discussions that we have had concerning the novel. He said, “Yet the novel seems to draw out a certain buried awareness in my students that the most familiar aspects of their lives shopping malls, television, families, and the languages of these things-harbor deep and resonant mysteries. It affects them, I think, as a sustained defamiliarization of their own lives.” (Bonca)

A perfect example of how postmodernism is displayed in the novel is when Jack and Babette are looking at old photos and they are discussing their feelings about it. This is evident on page 30 of the novel where it describes that the two were looking at “children wincing in the sun, women in sun hats, men shading their eyes from the glare as if the past possessed some quality of light we no longer experience.” In a brief text by Leslie Whisenaut she sums it all up by stating, “DeLillo’s postmodernism here is best viewed in terms of another statement uttered by Jack, ‘When tradition becomes too flexible, irony enters the voicee.’ (p. 86), but the irony understandable in light of their promises of personal integration in the face of fragmentation, of inspirational meaning in the midst of misprison, of cosmic order in the moment of chaos.” (Whisenaut)



Bonca, C. “Don DeLillo’s White Noise: The natural language of the species”. (1996). College literature.

       June. Page 1. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3709/is_199606/ai_n8753398/

Whisenaut, L. “Postmodernism in: White Noise”. Angelfire.

       http://www.angelfire.com/rebellion2/whitenoise/pomo.html

Poets in the Kitchen...Paule Marshall

Paule Marshall is not the only notable author from the West Indies that writes in English / lives in America.  What other American authors have a West Indian heritage?  Do a researched blog on that author, making connections to Marshall’s essay.  

           

West Indian poet and dramatist, Derek (Alton) Walcott writes in both English and West Indian dialect. Most of his life was spent living in Trinidad, however he was given the Nobel Prize for literature in the year 1992. It is said that “his poems are characterized by allusions to the English poetic tradition and a symbolic imagination that is at once personal and Caribbean.” Walcott was born in Castries, St. Lucia. His father was a Bohemian artist and his mother was a teacher from Dutch St. Maarten.

            Like Marshall’s essay mentions, Walcott describes himself as being “raised in this obscure Caribbean poet…” They both acknowledge the fact that their literary upbringings began at home within the family circle. Walcott attended St Mary’s college in Castries, then went on to further his education at the University College of the West indies in Kingston, Jamaica. His move to Trinidad in 1953, found him working for the Trinidad Guardian, focusing on features and drama critics, then later spending a year in New York to study theater. He has three recorded marriages and divorces throughout his lifetime. Prior to his studies in New York, Walcott took up teaching in many schools on different Caribbean islands. 1950 was the marking of a great year for Walcott; this is the year that he founded the St. Lucia Arts Guild, a notable accomplishment and considered a great achievement for not only him, but the St. Lucia community.

            Not only did Walcott teach in the Caribbean islands, but he also worked as a professor of poetry at the University of Boston. At this point in his life, it was necessary for Walcott to divide his time between Trinidad and the United States. It wasn’t all easy for Walcott, however, sexual harassment accusations from a poetry workshop in Harvard and Boston University put a stop to him running for the Oxford poetry professor this year. He was forced to withdraw due to these allegations and noted that the whole competition had “degenerated into character assassination.” Ironically though, Ruth Padel, who was elected as the chair, later resigned after it came to surface about her involvement in the campaign against Walcott’s name. However, he was elected as the 2009 teacher of poetry at the University of Alberta in Canada.

            Marshall’s essay mentioned the connection that was made once the narrator started reading writings by black authors, mentioning that something had been missing form the othr literature that she was able to find comfort in with black literature. In the same sense, Walcott stated, “ But there is an isolation in the sense that, as West Indian writers, whether we live in London or the West Indies, we are both cut off from and are a part of a tradition.” Walcott has writings that are in both standard English and in West Indian dialect with a focus on the postcolonial condition and credit to the Creole tradition and history of dancing, music of the calypso, and “metaphorical speech.”

Liukkonen, P. Derek (Alton) Walcott (1930-).2008.Ari Pesonen Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/walcott.htm  

A Small Place...Jamaica Kincaid

Research the island of Antigua.  Give an analysis of Antigua’s history and culture.  Where do you see evidence of this in the text?  Use quotes in your answer.

Antigua and Barbuda, known as Wadadli and Wa’omoni prior to Christopher Columbus, are two islands located in the Eastern Caribbean. They are known for heir multitude of beaches as well as being a popular tourist location rich in Creole culture and sugarcane history.

Antigua was majorly cultivated by Sir Christopher Codrington in 1684. Originally, the island was meant to be a land of pure sugar-cane cultivation. Codrington came to Antigua in hopes that, this island would support the large-scale growth of sugar-cane that was evident throughout the rest of the Caribbean. By mid 18^th century there were more than 150 cane-processing windmills, of which there are currently about 100 still standing and being used as houses, bars, tourist stops, etc.

            Most of the Antiguan heritage is laced with traces of African lineage brought over to be used as workers in the sugarcane fields. History has revealed, however, that the ancestry of the Antigua inhabitants dates all the way back to two and a half millennia before Christ. The Siboney or “stone people”, who were Meso-Indians are dated as the inhabitants of Antigua as far back as 2400 B.C. The remnants of their culture are found in the crafted stones and shells that are found around the island. After this civilization, came the Arawaks, of who were an agricultural society and dwelled on the island of Antigua from about 35-1100 A.D. The aggressive Caribs, who were inhabited throughout the Caribbean, then took over the Antiguan area.

            The first contact with Antigua dates back to Christopher Columbus in 1493, where in passing he named it after the saint of Seville, Santa Maria la Antigua. Due to the resistance from the Caribs, Antigua escaped European settlement for almost a century after its discovery. However, this came to an end in 1632 when Englishmen from St. Kitts create a settlement there. France, Spain, and England each played a hand in the fight for the control of Antigua’s soil, because they each wanted to be in charge of the sugarcane industry. Antigua’s high profits when it comes to the production of sugarcane made it most valuable to colonizers as well as put them at an advantage over the other islands. When slavery was abolished and Antigua became emancipated, the sugarcane industry began to dwindle for Antigua, which forced them then and now to rely on tourism to support the majority of the island’s income.

            The African influence is great in the island’s culture through the music and most notably the celebration of Carnival. However, the British influence can not be denied as Antigua has adopted many of the traditional British sports and religion. Jamaica Kincaid draws a correlation to this influence on pages 23 and 24 of the novel, “They don’t seem to know that this empire business was all wrong and they should, at least, be wearing sackcloth and ashes in token penance for the wrongs committed, the irrevocableness of their bad deeds, for no natural disaster imaginable could equal the harm they did…they should never have left their home, their precious England, a place they loved so much, a place they had to leave but could never forget. And so everywhere they went they turned it into England; and everybody they met they turned English. But no place could ever really be England, and nobody who did not look exactly like them would ever be English, so that you can imagine the destruction of people and land that came from that.”

Antigua and Barbuda’s History and Culture. 1996-2008. InterKnowledge Corp. New York, NY. http://www.geographia.com/antigua-barbuda/aghis01.htm

Culture of Antigua and Barbuda. 2009. Advameg, Inc. http://www.everyculture.com/A-Bo/Antigua-And-Barbuda.html

Scarlet Letter...Blog 1

The Scarlet Letter was considered to be amongst the begginings of American Literature, along with Emerson's essays and Walden. These works were characterized by what the authors thought that American literature should sound like. They were attempting to make a break from the dominating British literature and make something of their own. Romanticism and Realism were among the first genres of American literature. 

Romanticism was characterized by the use of symbolism, idealistic and happy endings, didactic plots, supernatural components, exotic setting, and the idea of good vs. evil. Realism, on the other hand, is characterized by ambiguity, flawed heroes, personable with a relation to everyday life, the value of character over plot. Symbolism is often used as an allegoty and nature is seemingly symbolic of other things. From class discussion, the shift from Romanticism to Realism occurred due to a few factors including the Westward Expansion, shift in values and beliefs, and the railroad. Also, we can attribute this shift to America beginning to identify itself as separate from Europe.


In The Scarlet Letter, there is obvious proof that Hawthorne was a writer of the romanticism genre. The setting is in the wilderness, in a secluded town which correlates with the exotic locale that depicts Romantic literature. For example, p.36 and 37 of the text describe the wild rosebush outside of the prison doors. There are multiple examples of the supernatural. Page 41 of the text describes the glowing of the "A" which is also symbolic of adultery. Also, with her daughter Pearl, many of the townspeople have described her as having the gleam of withcraft in her eyes, for example p.102 of the text. Also, the symbolism of the "A" in the sky as a meteor adds to the fact that this is indeed a romantic novel.