English 270
Literature of the Eastern Caribbean
Overseas Interim
January 2009

Instructor: Karen Cherewatuk
Level II
Major Credit in English (Global literatures in English)
GE Credit: Literature Studies (ALS-L)
Prerequisites: None
Maximum Enrollment: 22
Cost: $3700

COURSE GOALS

Over the past fifty years there has been a rich flowering of literature in English outside the mainstream Anglo-American tradition. One area in which this has been particularly striking is the West Indies. The goal of this course is to study on site a selection of this literature. The course will focus on poets and prose fiction writers from mainly, though not exclusively, the English-speaking islands of Barbados, Trinidad, and Saint Lucia, and will include such figures as Edward Brathwaite, Jamaica Kincaid, George Lamming, V.S. Naipaul (2001 Nobel Prize winner), Olive Senior, and Derek Walcott (1992 Nobel Prize winner). In studying the literature on the islands from which it has originated, we shall have the chance to experience and absorb the cultures that have produced such creativity, and in so doing get behind the over-simple, commercial tourists' conception of the Caribbean.

THE ISLANDS

The three Caribbean islands we shall visit are at the southeastern tip of the long necklace of islands that stretch from Cuba in the northwest to the Trinidad in the southeast. They are small but well populated. Barbados, 21 miles long and 14 miles wide, has about 250,000 inhabitants. Saint Lucia, 27 miles by 14, has some 140,000. Trinidad (which forms a single nation with the neighboring island of Tobago) is the largest of the three, about 100 miles by 40 with a population of over one million.

All three islands were former British colonies. All three are now independent nations. They each offer very different environments. Barbados is tranquil and idyllic; Port of Spain, where we shall stay on Trinidad, is a gritty, noisy, and bustling city; Saint Lucia is an island of dramatically beautiful scenery and brooding culture. In each, one finds conspicuous wealth and troubling poverty side by side. The contrast between and the disparities within the islands are an integral part of the course. The West Indies is a varied and complicated place.

ACCOMMODATIONS AND FOOD

We shall fly from Minneapolis to Miami , and from Miami to Barbados , where we shall spend the first eight to nine days of the course. On Barbados we shall reside in student housing on the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies, about three miles north of Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, and take meals in the cafeteria.

We shall spend the next eight to nine days in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad, staying in a centrally located guesthouse. Meals will be catered in the inn or available in the area's many inexpensive restaurants.

The last portion of the interim will be spent on the island of Saint Lucia. Accommodation there will be in Castries, the island's capital. You will stay in private houses with St. Lucian families, within walking distance of the Folk Research Centre, where we shall hold our classes. Your families will provide meals. We shall return to Minneapolis via Miami or Dallas.

Midway through the month, while we are in Trinidad, you will have a free weekend. I shall recommend you spend the weekend in Tobago (see COSTS below), though you will be free to use it as you wish.

CLASSES AND COURSE WORK

Classes will be held every week day morning and occasionally in the evening or on Saturdays.

You will be expected to complete all the reading assignments, to attend and participate actively in all class sessions and field trips (to many staggeringly beautiful sites), and to give class presentations either individually or in small groups. You will also be required to write three essays of 4 to 5 pages each, based on the reading for the course, and to take an exam. The coursework is real and rigorous.

On Barbados, classes will be held on the Cave Hill campus of University of West Indies. In Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, we shall meet in the guesthouse where we are studying. On Saint Lucia, we shall meet at the Folklore Research Centre in Castries.

We shall frequently have guest lecturers. Some will be associated with the University of the West Indies, which has a campus not only on Barbados but also on Trinidad; others will be members of Saint Lucia's community of artists. The lecturers will include both academic and creative writers. All of the presentations, by resident specialists in the field, will add considerably to our understanding of Eastern Caribbean literature and culture.

EXCURSIONS

On all three islands we shall supplement course work and reading with trips to sites of historic, cultural, and environmental interest. These will include such places as the Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill, the Gun Hill Station, and the 18 th -century plantations on Barbados; the Asa Wright Nature Centre, the Malik Folk Performers, and the Caroni Swamp Bird Sanctuary on Trinidad, to watch the nightly arrival of thousands of scarlet ibis coming into roost; and on Saint Lucia, Pigeon Point, with its 18 th -century military fortifications. In Trinidad, if our timing is right, we shall also listen to the calypso bands warming up for the annual pre-Lenten carnival.

CLIMATE

The three islands are in the tropics, roughly between latitudes 10 and 15 degrees, south of the tropic of Cancer and north of the equator. Daytime temperatures are around 75 to 80 degrees, nights are a little cooler. The windward sides of the islands are cooled by Atlantic breezes; the leeward, Caribbean sides are somewhat warmer. So, you may expect to dress as for summer, and if you like swimming – the beaches are spectacular – bring a swimsuit.

AN ADDITIONAL WORD ON CLOTHING

The people of the Caribbean nations we shall visit have more conservative notions of dress than American college students. I will require students (particularly women) to dress according to the custom of the countries in which we are guests, that is neatly and modestly. Shorts and skirts should come to the knee. Absolutely no tank, camis, or halter tops/dresses are allowed on streets unless covered by a jacket or blouse. And all should wear a complete beach cover-up walking to and from the beach.

COSTS

The cost of the program ($3700) covers transportation, accommodation, two meals a day (breakfast and either lunch or dinner), and group excursions for the entire program.

Should you leave the guesthouse in Port-of-Spain for the free weekend in Trinidad, your transportation and accommodation costs will be at your own expense. The cost of the suggested trip to Tobago (transportation, accommodation, food) will be about $150.

As on campus, the cost of textbooks for the course will be your responsibility.

FINAL WORDS

Caribbean societies are racially and ethnically among the most varied and mixed in the world, and their cultural creativity and energy reflect the rich diversity. This interim will expand you notion of multiculturalism in a way you have probably never experienced before. It will challenge your assumptions about how life is and should be lead. It will also take you to some of the most beautiful islands in the world and into the minds and hearts of their great literary artists.